With the euro threatening to go above $1.50 US, how many of you are going to forgo a trip to Venice and hope that a change arrives soon? I'm one of those people. As much as I love Venice, I'm not ready to pay 50% more. So I'll spend the time getting my Venetian library and photos in order. Maybe I'll even post more often!
But, it looks like the euro/dollar conversion didn't stop many people this year. "Italy's Venice on track for record tourism year" is the headline of an article on the AFP website. The city's tourist office expects the year to end with a total of 20 million tourists visiting!
The article also says:
"The number of tourists expected to visit the city from now until the end of the year without spending a night there has been estimated at between 11 and 12 million, the official said.
"The ratio between foreign tourists and Italian visitors has remained constant at 80 percent to 20 percent respectively.
"Americans continue to be the largest group of visitors with 1.15 million spending at least one night in the northern Italian city.
"The number of Japanese tourists has declined by more than seven percent this year, while Russian visitors have shot up by 31 percent. Spanish tourists were up by nearly 18 percent and French visitors had increased by almost 11 percent."
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