Posted on 03/07/2008 2:21:36 PM PST by WesternCulture
Danes have always loved the US as a travel destination. But with the dollar at its lowest point in 30 years, residents are now gobbling up the many discount offers being pitched by the nation's travel companies.
Several travel bureaus are reporting increases of up to 140 percent on sales of trips to the states, where Danes can feel like wealthy plantation barons. In the past two years, the dollar has fallen from a value of 6.4 kroner to a shocking 4.8 kroner today - its lowest point since 1977.
Weekend trips to New York City have been a hot item in particular, say representatives of the travel industry.
'The appetite for the US is enormous right now,' Jahn Shapiro, head of Profil Rejser travel bureau, told Nyhedsavisen newspaper. 'And every time the dollar falls a bit more, it just makes Danes all the more hungry to head to New York or Las Vegas.'
Stig Elling, sales director at Star Tour, agreed.
'There's no doubt the low dollar has really got Danes to become shopaholics,' said Elling. 'We're selling a lot of power shopping trips to New York, where people just go for a long weekend. The demand is incredible.'
Travel experts also point out that the high-flying Danish economy has given citizens more disposable income. Shapiro said that nowadays when Danes plan a cross-country US tour, they rent larger vehicles such as SUV's and minivans.
Besides New York City and Las Vegas, Danes preferred US destinations are the Southwestern states and California. (RC)
They are certainly welcome in Solvang.
Won’t hear much about this on the nightly news.
Denmark
Population: 5,468,120
(July 2007 est.)
Come on over, Danes!
I’m likewise trying to enjoy what I can of the United States while we are still a free nation.
“Danes can feel like wealthy plantation barons...”
Should we warn them about that cultural landmine or just let them find out for themselves?
As long as they come on foot, cause there'll certainly be no place to park.
European prices are up to double what we pay locally, thanks to consumption taxes and layers of regulation that lead to higher prices there. A shopping trip to buy the exact same items (except for labeling) in New York as in Denmark can more than pay for airfare and hotel costs. This is why they show up stateside.
To prospective Danish tourists: don’t travel to Las Vegas if that’s your first trip to the United States. Too many rude and uncouth people congregate there (unsurprising, given the city’s main ‘attractions’).
Was wondering at the authors choice of imagery, too.
- Thanks for welcoming Viking visitors to California, although I'm not Danish myself (I'm Swedish).
IMO, Europeans and Americans still have a lot in common, share many vital interests and ought to nurture a spirit of brotherhood - despite Chirac’s behavior.
We ought to get together each other more frequently.
Ahh, so this is why he’s so pro-illegal.
author’s
It’s not only the Danes that have ‘noticed’ the decline in the dollar relative to their own currency. Many in other countries are doing the same.
Come along, spend those tourist dollars.
Cat's out of the bag.
Welcome - given the exchange rates, I ain’t heading to Europe any time soon.
Correction:
Perhaps the sentence
“We ought to get together more frequently” sounds better
than
“We ought to get together each other more frequently.”
:D
Sorry.
How come they’re not flocking to places like Alabama? I mean, in Alabama they’ve got...uh...never mind.
Tack så mycket for the article.
That’s pretty much my limit on Swedish.
Should have paid more attention to my Dane, Swede and Norwegian ancestors. :)
There's still Eastern Europe. Very few tourists and the American Dollar goes far. I've been to Ukraine a couple of times. It's dirt cheap. Great fun!
We have many students of Danish descent at Santa Ynez Valley High School who look very authentic as Vikings. From a great Viking stock, as are you Swedes.
Are you kidding me? I think Solvang is very tourist friendly with ample free public parking.
“We have many students of Danish descent at Santa Ynez Valley High School who look very authentic as Vikings. From a great Viking stock, as are you Swedes.”
- Thanks for these words and greetings to sunny California from chilly (in a literal sense only) Gothenburg/Göteborg, the home of politically correct Volvos:)
It’s a great thing a lot of parents in both our parts of the world send their sons and daughters to study abroad (maybe it’s more common in Scandinavia, but I’ve come across several young Americans who’ve spent a year or so studying in Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe).
Personally, I’ve never studied in the US (but at least I’ve been there - Fla), but from the age of 9 to 10 my family lived in the UK. At first, I wasn’t too keen on leaving my school and my friends here in Sweden, but today, at the age of 38, I can see the benefits of this experience.
“That’s pretty much my limit on Swedish.”
It’s never too late to brush up one’s Swedish!
This is a good starting point:
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/swe.html
Lycka till/Good luck, fellow freeper!
Come on over and buy all those cheap made in china products...
I spent quite a bit of time in Jonkoping.
Even met one of the girls from the old band ABBA.
It never did get very bright out during the day :^D
Nice place.
“I spent quite a bit of time in Jonkoping.”
- Jönköping is a fine part of Northern Europe. I live only 8-9 miles from there.
As you probably are well aware of, it’s regarded the “capital” of Småland, a part of Sweden known, among other things, for its industrious and inventive entrepreneurs. Ingvar Kamprad, founder and sole owner of IKEA, is from this part of Scandinavia. Pippi Longstocking, the daughter - or at least brainchild - of Astrid Lindgren is too (like her “mother”).
Even though Jönköping is a nice city with honorable inhabitants, it’s not the only place worthy of praise when it comes to the area of Jönköping.
The town of Gränna, Lake Vättern and the island of Visingsö are all very beautiful in my opinion.
Huskvarna, twin city of Jönköping (as you know, of course), deserve much recognition for a certain company named after this city (however the spelling of the comapny is “Husqvarna” - the explanation is the company was founded already in 1689 and at that time the spelling of the city’s name was different).
Husqvarna (today a subsidary of Electrolux) makes excellent tools. I’ve worked with their chainsaws.
Here are some pictures from Gränna by the way:
Have you visited this town?
I made a quick stop there recently on my way back to Gothenburg after having visited a friend in Stockholm. The pictures doesn’t do the town and the surroundings justice.
Driving down the freeway running alongside lake Vättern is an experience that could compete with what certain roads in France and Italy has to offer (if I may say so as a Swedish patriot).
“Even met one of the girls from the old band ABBA.”
- Can’t compete with that, but a guy who used to play guitar with Ace of Base (a Swedish group that was rather successful in the the early 1990s) visited a party I once threw:D
Best of regards from the West Coast of Sweden!
Indeed, but I was thinking more about the gaming in Nevada.
It’ll keep ‘em out of range of the car bombs and fatwa squads (for a while).
Correction:
I wrote
“I live only 8-9 miles from there”
80-90 miles from there is the truth, actually.
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