Posing with his 10-month-old son, Houston resident Mike Struebold found a reason to fly to Iceland in early January. Now the Marine Corps veteran says the trip was “a once in a lifetime experience.”
“The lighting here in Iceland, there’s something magical about it,” he said.
Honduras is making a push to become one of the next top travel destinations for Americans, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Atlantic Southeast is targeting Guatemala, while a large portion of the South — from North Carolina through Virginia and West Virginia — is looking to Honduras, the paper reports.
The trend is partly due to slashed airline fees and better air service, according to an annual study by the World Travel and Tourism Council, which estimated the travel industry will bring in a record $1.2 trillion worldwide in 2018. But there are other reasons.
As we enter the tourist season, travel destinations from Vietnam to Mexico and Europe are increasingly touting the U.S. currency value as another draw, particularly for Americans who are looking to make travel-savvy use of their dollars, the Journal said.
By way of example, in France, people had to exchange five dollars at the official rate in 2016 to purchase $1, or four at the official rate in 2018, compared to four last year in Vietnam, three in Vietnam in 2013 and 15 in 2013 in Mexico, according to a 2017 PwC report.
“Is not really the dollar per economy, that’s my eyes,” Struebold said. “Just trying to find a destination that’s diverse and cheap.”