Hard numbers illustrating the impact of the stronger U.S. dollar vs. other currencies—especially the euro—have been absent from the discussion of the issue … until just recently. At the latest meeting of the Brand USA board of directors, the agency revealed a graph that clearly shows the negative impact of the stronger dollar on the intention to visit the USA by travelers in the key markets of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Japan South Korea and Mexico. Last year, these nations generated more than 70 percent of international travel to the United States.
Meanwhile, the outlook from Brazil remains negative. Although 2015 numbers for arrivals to the USA from Brazil are still being processed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and won’t be available for the current month until December or January, there are current data available on other metrics which illustrate the impact of the weak Brazilian real vs. the U.S. dollar.
For instance, the Brazilian Central Bank just reported that Brazilians spent 46 percent less on international travel in August this year compared with the same month of 2014.
For the first eight months of 2015, the Central Bank said spending fell 25 percent, down to $12.9 billion. From mid-August 2014 to mid-August 2015, the value of the real went from $0.44 to $0.287—a decline of 36 percent.
