Many of us will travel to Greece this year precisely because of the cheaper prices, and they're still in the Euro.
Although the US$ has strengthened greatly vs the Brazil $R and other currencies this year, foreign visitors still yield much more than $140 a clip. brazilians alone buy half (50%) or the real estate sold in South Florida, the vast majority for cash. Retail sales in parts of New York, Florida, California and many other places are augmented materially by foreign visitors buying in the US. Every flight to Brazil is stuffed full of bags of brazilians who buy everything from Gold's Horseradish, refrigerator parts, computers and clothing (and that is just my own bags from my last trip

). The last estimate i read is that the average Brazilian visitor to Florida spends $1,000 per day.
Are the average Russian or Chinese visitors much different? Maybe, but I doubt it. I suspect none of the data other than real estate are very accurate. Recently I had a conversation with the Macy's foreign visitor registration desk staffer at Dadeland in Miami (they give a discount to foreigners shopping there upon presentation of their foreign passport). I counted 83 names before mine on their roster, although I arrived only 90 minutes after opening. There were mostly Brazilians but quite a few Russians, Chinese and assorted other nationalities. The nice lady told me their store had roughly 70% sales from foreigners.
Those US visitor data most assuredly ignore all those merchandise sales and real estate sales. Were I in charge in the USA I'd be making major moves to enroll Brazil, Argentina, Russia and China in the Visa Waiver program. Even if a few hundred thousand from each stayed beyond their visa think of all the exports these people are producing.
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