Should we accept the $ and £ ?

drunkmonkey

Was thinking this would attract a lot more American and UK visitors to Ireland. No need to change money just jump on a plane and your set.
Could it work?

jhegarty

Every shop counter would need 3 tills , with a float in each.

So no , wouldn't work.

Icepick

Because that's what's stopping tourists...

Scofflaw

Let's see - do the costs outweigh the benefits? Almost certainly. How do we know that? Because there's absolutely nothing stopping anyone doing this except the costs - anywhere that takes payment is free to take it in any form they like, be that roubles or gold. Pretty much every till in Newry is dual currency because the benefits do outweigh the costs - tills in Ireland aren't, because we simply don't have that volume of sterling or dollars flowing through them.

That's not to say that many tourist outlets won't accept sterling or dollars in payment - they will, and have done for at least the last 40 years. They just won't give you your change in the same currency.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Tora Bora

If a yank had to pay for a cup of coffee over here, in cash dollars, they would become ever more aware, what a rip off we are.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

From my experience of some places that accept both sterling and euro in Tyrone and Fermanagh, it would be a rip-off for those paying in foreign currency. It would be rounded up and they'd get better value for money if they converted.

ardmacha

If you have to come on plane from the US then you are going to stay a few days. All you have to do is go to an ATM machine in Dublin airport and get Euros, it is not that complicated and is not an obstacle to travel.

If you want to improve tourism then reduce prices, like the VAT cut, and regulate things like car hire where tourists are subject to sharp practice and which does real damage to the reputation of Ireland as a tourist destination.

Solair

This might have been a useful facility 20 years ago, but in this day and age, most tourists do not travel with large volumes of cash.

Most people these days have debit cards, ATM cards and credit cards that work internationally and they use them when they are abroad. It is extremely easy to make a payment directly in a shop, restaurant, cafe etc by card or to simply withdraw cash at an ATM without massive fees.

In fact, AIB machines are even part of the UK's LINK ATM network so UK customers can use those without much expense at all.

Also, where foreign currency is accepted in any location, I have always found it's at best a fixed-rate estimate price and at worst a complete rip off.

I never allow UK or US shops to charge me in Euro on my credit card either. It tends to be a crazy rip off. I never understand why anyone accepts that facility when they insert their card as your bank's rates are almost always much better than the shop's!

The biggest issues in Ireland that need to be dealt with :

1) High roaming charges for US / Canadian visitors, particularly for data. These are actually a big barrier to entry / shock factor when people go home.

2) Car rental prices that are astronomically high and rip-off practices in this sector. It's much cheaper to hire a car in most other countries.

3) General prices, particularly for food / snacks are way too high across the board.

4) The other real shock factor for US tourists in particular is the price of petrol. I know a few Americans who were nearly running out of money for food after they'd driven around Ireland, Britain and France. They'd estimate petrol prices as bit higher than the US, but not 1.65 Euro / L in France! Over 1.50 in Ireland.

€1.65/L works out at US$ 9.13 per gallon vs about US$4.05/gallon in NYC on average and that's expensive by US standards.

ardmacha

2) Car rental prices that are astronomically high and rip-off practices in this sector. It's much cheaper to hire a car in most other countries

+1 on this, although Americans cause a lot of the cost by wanting automatic cars and by being bad drivers and scraping the cars.

That said the high cost of petrol doesn't seem to be an obstacle to American tourists, if they did something other than drive all day. If you look on tripadvisor they invariably propose Killarney one day, Connemara the next and the Giants Causeway on day 3!

Solair

A buddy of mine in NY went home to $4 grand AT&T roaming bill from a holiday in France and the UK !!

All he'd done was use his iPhone as normal.

Being not so worldly wise, he assumed that data must just be crazy-expensive in Europe, not that his mobile operator and the French/British operators had basically milked-him-dry by charging insane roaming rates that are vastly out of line with the costs.

motherriley

Will the Euro over take Sterling in value:rolleyes:

Solair

motherriley wrote: »

Will the Euro over take Sterling in value:rolleyes:

It probably will as the UK is quantitive easing like there's no tomorrow i.e. devaluing its currency to politely devalue (cough : default) on its debts.

The US is doing the same.

Meanwhile the ECB is basically destroying several countries because it is locked into a mantra of NO INFLATION under any circumstances. Even if citizens stave, the Euro will remain strong to protect the vested interests and savers.