Advantages of a weak dollar are slow to filter down to Irish consumers. The best place to see how far your euro goes is the US, writes Christine Newman
Drivers hoping the weakening dollar would mean cheaper petrol have been disappointed but tourists to the US have benefited, a consumer group said yesterday.
Mr Dermott Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers Association of Ireland, said Irish travellers spending in the US would certainly benefit from the weakened dollar. "Also with people buying US goods on the internet, it is likely it will improve their purchasing power, the rate is so good," he said.
However, he said, there was another side to it.
"There is some annoyance among consumers that this drop in the dollar has not been reflected in goods imported from the US. There is an expectation that prices should drop," Mr Jewell said.
He cited electrical goods imported from the US and certain clothing. These prices should be falling rather than giving the appearance of being fixed, he said.
"More importantly, petrol, diesel and oil prices are based entirely on the US dollar. There would be a great expectation that there should be some relief on that.
"If it was the other way round, there would be an increase," Mr Jewell said.
While Irish visitors to the US will benefit from the exchange rate from euros to dollars, the reverse applies to North American tourists to Ireland.
Irish tourism chiefs said the weakened dollar certainly increased pressure on the home holiday market but that they remained optimistic Ireland could attract US custom away from European competitors.
Mr Shaun Quinn, Failté Ireland chief executive, said the industry was faced with spiralling costs but it also applied to the rest of the euro countries.
Last year there was a marked improvement in the number of overseas visitors to Ireland.
For US visitors, the drop did make some destinations more expensive than this time last year.
"Hopefully, a strong track record in 2003 will help.
Certainly it does put extra pressure on the industry but we have been responding to increasing costs and we have found the industry very resilient over the past two to three years," Mr Quinn said.
Mr Paul O'Toole, chief executive of Tourism Ireland said while the fall in the dollar was a concern as it increased pressure on the US consumer, they hoped Ireland would remain a strong attraction to US visitors.
"We are reasonably confident that unless there is another further sharp adjustment that we can continue to attract the US visitor and sustain what improvement has been made," he said.
