US travelers planning trips to Oz might be interested in reading this:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...site=melbourne

It's tough news though, for Australian tourism operators and people trying to export goods to the USA.

The USD is sinking against most currencies, I believe, so we are likely to see fewer American tourists in most places.

Plus Australians are more likely to go overseas, which means domestic tourism is down. When I went to the US in 2000 our dollar was about half the US dollar. I have to confess I'm about to take full advantage of our very strong dollar...

I with you Susan7..ditto on travel in 2000. I'm looking forward to 2011, a great year to travel if you buy your currencies about now.

Plus the whole "dumb blonde" image. Oprah not withstanding.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/austral...e-of-the-world

Sure, great for you guys. Not so great for us, about to head from US to Australia! But not much to be done about it other than be a bit more budget conscious. Them's the breaks...

Go to South America instead.

Dear me mlgb, you really aren't a happy little vegemite!

I'm very happy thank you, but not that fond of vegemite either.

I love Peru!!

I love Prue.

Bad news for those of us living in OZ, but being paid in US dollars. And we thought OZ was expensive when the rate was in our favor.

Oh well, so it goes.

I lived in Britain in 1999 and was being paid in Aus$. It was only buying 35p at one stage!

And the wheel turns..... Australians have had many years of unfavourable US$ exchange rates, I don't blame them taking advantage of a weak US$, although as Susan 7 mentions, it means a huge hit for domestic tourism as well as declines in US tourism.

Internal airfares in Australia are cheap, especially if you keep an eye out for specials, my brother just bought a Jet Star flight Sydney-Cairns for $79, pretty good for a 3 hour flight.

As for British "branding experts" giving their two bob's worth, Australians too cringe at many of our Tourist Board's promotional efforts, its odd that the most cringeable to many of us were the Paul Hogan "throw a shrimp on the barbie" TV ads of the 80's, which were hugely successful in US.

And then there's Kath and Kim, also hugely popular abroad.

Not to mention Steve Irwin's US popularity.

And Bindi too.

It has done it! For seven seconds the A$ was worth more than the US$

I remember one trip to the US where the dollar was, I think, about 55 cents... so I am loving the dollar parity!

And I thought prices in Australia were outrageous last summer. Glad that I am not planing a trip down under next year. However, I will be going to Turkey where, no doubt, the American dollar will not be worth much either.

Such is life.

I'm going to the States next year, so I am happy with parity or better.

A few years ago we were in the UK when we were only getting 0.33 of a pound to the dollar. So in effect everything was triple what we would normally pay.

Swings and roundabouts.