16 years
One Euro costs US$ 1.50 since yesterday. This was big in the news.
So far, numbers of US guests are fairly consistent in our hostels, and we´re among the most expensive hostels in the cities where we operate. This is quite amazing IMHO.
My guess is that most of our guests are upper middle class, which is still not affected by the economical crisis in America. Many of those guests seem to travel on their parent´s credit cards. A trip to Europe is still seen as "must do", so Americans and Australians don´t explore other destinations, like Germans do.
18 years ago, when I started to work in summer to raise money for travelling, 15 Deutschmarks [=€7.50] per hour was the standard salary for student McJobs. That sort of pay hasn´t changed ever since. Thank you, neoliberalism. People work as bartenders for € 6-8 in Berlin or Vienna, it´s only a little more in Munich, which is an expensive town to live in.
When I was young, Interrail was hugely popular and it was easy to earn enough money in 4 weeks to travel Europe for 6 weeks. That´s impossible today, so in the 90ies, Latin America and South East Asia replaced Interrail trips.
I think, as long as Americans travel with their parent´s money, things will only change when your economy goes into meltdown mode. That´s what happened in Argentina. Guests from there have almost completely vanished from Europe.
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