US Tourists Priced out of Irish Market?

The US dollar has weakened against the euro by around 10% since the start of the year, with inflation and the huge US trade deficit pushing the dollar down. 

Dr Alan Ahearn, an Economist at NUI Galway, expects the dollar the keep falling: “We need to get used to a very weak dollar. It’s over 1.50 today and it’s probably going  a lot lower.  That’s going to be a fact of life.”

Assessing the impact of the weakening dollar on Ireland, he told RTE’s ‘Morning Ireland’: “Anybody exporting into the United States is obviously suffering in the sense that they’re pricing in dollars. The amount of money they’re getting back when you transfer it into euros is falling all the time. That’s squeezing profits; and it’s going to squeeze some of those firms out of the market.”

And what of its effects on tourism?

“We’re also seeing with tourists, which is a service export, that it’s getting very expensive for US tourists coming to Ireland and Ireland’s an expensive country anyway. When I look around the country I’m struck by how many hotels that were built over the last few  years and I’m beginning to wonder who they expect to stay in those hotels. I hope it’s not Americans because I don’t see the Americans coming over here in droves.”