NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ― With a falling dollar sweetening the deal, a rising number of international travelers chose the city as their destination in 2007, spurring a record-setting year that saw visitors spend an estimated $28 billion in the metropolis, tourism officials said.
With a final count still pending, the city's tourism office said Sunday that an estimated 46 million people had visited the city in 2007 -- up 5 percent from the year before. The jump was largely due to visitors from other countries, who numbered an estimated 8.5 million -- a growth of 17 percent.
I've been saying this about the flipside of our border: a weak dollar makes American exports more attractive. Now we see it is also good for tourism. If something being cheaper were bad for business companies would stop issuing coupons to market their goods.
I also think the Euro is over-valued as the EU is hardly a manufacturing powerhouse and socilaist economic policies are stultifying facts of life.
It is a shame that the "weak dollar" is being played as a US liability prior to the election--it's even more distressing that the so-called "true conservatives" speak as if the dollar should be propped-up by government interference in economic matters. Bubba Jeff's primary economic policy was to keep the dollar's value as high as possible. Keep that up and all you'll have is trade deficits and overvaluation which will under value your currency because of shaken confidence once the facade falls off...think dot-com bubble.
The fact is economics have an ebb and flow. You cannot buy low and sell high if there is never a low. The "weak" dollar makes America more economically attractive and once enough consumers and investors are attracted it's value will go back up commensurate to the demand.
The best policy is no policy. Let the market settle its own affairs.
