News & views

21 January 2010

Eurozone price cuts result in better value for 2010 travellers

• Holiday cost hikes in Turkey result in 44 percent price rise
• Jamaica, Egypt and Dubai offer better value as a result of strengthing sterling

Visitors to the eurozone are set to see their holiday cash go further this year as price cuts across many resorts will result in better value for holidaymakers according to First Rate Exchange Services Ltd (First Rate). 

First Rate is also advising that Turkey, a hotspot for UK travellers during 2009, is unlikely to offer as good a deal in 2010.  Although Turkish lira has weakened by over seven per cent against sterling in the past year, price hikes of almost 44 per cent¹ for holiday items such as meals and drinks are set to have an impact on UK holidaymakers budgets.  First Rate’s comments follow the issuing of the Post Office’s annual Holiday Money Report which reveals the holiday hotspots where sterling will stretch further due to stronger sterling combined with lower costs of living. First Rate is the provider behind the Post Office’s market leading offer.

Gordon Gourlay, Managing Director, First Rate said:  “The better value offered by Turkey to UK holidaymakers made Turkish lira one of the fastest growing currencies for our foreign currency retailers last year, with some experiencing a 44 per cent increase in sales.  Whilst sales of Euro dropped by up to 14 per cent.  “This year increases in holiday living costs in Turkey and price cuts across traditional eurozone resorts are set to drive increased demand for euros as UK tourists return to more traditional holiday destinations in Spain and Portugal.”

According to the Post Office Holiday Money Report Jamaica, Egypt and Dubai top the list of destinations where UK holidaymakers will have the most extra cash in their pocket thanks to a strengthening of the pound over the past 12 months.  Tourists will receive over 21 per cent more Jamaican dollars, almost 14 per cent more Egyptian pounds and 12.6 per cent more UAE dirhams compared to January 2009 ².

While the pound has risen in value against almost every major currency since last year, the report reveals the holiday hotspots where sterling will stretch further because their currencies have weakened most and living costs are low. 

According to the Post Office Worldwide Holiday Costs Barometer²  Turkey has dropped 14 places in the barometer table of 30 worldwide destinations to 22nd position, making it much more expensive than Spain.

Spain emerges as the cheapest eurozone destination – fourth placed overall and showing a price fall of 30 per cent for the same items surveyed a year ago.  This is part of a general trend, in which every eurozone country surveyed is cheaper than last year.

Overall, tourist costs are down in 17 of the 25 destinations previously surveyed, with some of the biggest falls in Bulgaria, Mexico, Mauritius and Barbados.  Prices have risen in only eight destinations, led by Turkey and South Africa.  The latter suffered because its currency is one of the few to have strengthened against sterling (+13 per cent year on year).

Hungary was the cheapest destination surveyed for the second year running and, since its currency, the forint, is now worth over nine per cent less than a year ago, the country looks unbeatable value for a city break.

In addition to providing a range of in branch and online foreign exchange services to the Post Office, First Rate’s other clients include Virgin Holidays, Santander, easyJet and P&O Ferries.

Notes to Editors:

¹ Post Office Worldwide Holiday Costs Barometer provides prices for eight tourist items (data supplied by tourist offices of participating countries, except Bulgaria, supplied by Balkan Holidays, France, supplied by Brittany Ferries/ABTOF, and Indonesia, supplied by Pacific World, a Hotelbeds company).

ITEMS	Hungary	Thailand	Bulgaria	Euro Spain	Indonesia	Czech Republic	Kenya
Cup of coffee - café/bar	£1.09	£0.51	£0.75	£1.04	£1.11	£1.51	£1.62
Bottle of Heineken (or similar) – café/bar	£1.82	£1.02	£1.00	£1.23	£2.96	£1.32	£1.35
Bottle of Coca-Cola - café/bar	£1.05	£0.31	£0.75	£1.23	£1.48	£1.69	£0.72
Bottle of mineral water – supermarket	£0.29	£0.51	£0.50	£0.31	£0.74	£0.45	£1.08
Suncream (factor 15) – supermarket	£5.46	£5.12	£7.53	£10.40	£2.59	£5.87	£6.29
Insect repellent – supermarket	£2.00	£0.82	£1.00	£1.66	£1.48	£1.69	£1.35
Packet of Marlboro Lights cigarettes	£2.18	£1.43	£2.51	£3.41	£0.74	£3.09	£1.80
3 course evening meal for 2 adults (including bottle of house wine in local restaurant)	£21.83	£28.67	£25.08	£25.56	£36.96	£33.87	£35.96
TOTAL COSTS	£35.72	£38.39	£39.12	£44.84	£48.06	£49.49	£50.17

 

ITEMS	Malaysia	Japan	Croatia	South Africa	Euro Greece	Euro Portugal	Euro Malta
Cup of coffee - café/bar	£1.19	£1.43	£1.34	£1.36	£3.79	£0.52	£0.95
Bottle of Heineken (or similar) – café/bar	£2.37	£2.10	£2.01	£1.72	£4.73	£0.95	£1.33
Bottle of Coca-Cola - café/bar	£0.30	£1.50	£1.88	£0.54	£3.31	£0.95	£1.04
Bottle of mineral water – supermarket	£0.47	£1.78	£0.54	£0.90	£0.47	£0.38	£0.47
Suncream (factor 15) – supermarket	£4.94	£2.85	£8.04	£6.33	£6.63	£9.93	£6.63
Insect repellent – supermarket	£1.38	£3.75	£3.08	£1.81	£3.79	£5.58	£3.79
Packet of Marlboro Lights cigarettes	£1.78	£2.28	£2.68	£2.35	£2.84	£3.31	£3.41
3 course evening meal for 2 adults (including bottle of house wine in local restaurant)	£39.54	£42.83	£42.87	£47.55	£37.86	£42.59	£47.33
TOTAL COSTS	£51.97	£58.52	£62.44	£62.56	£63.42	£64.21	£64.95

 

ITEMS	Mauritius	Euro Tenerife	Egypt	USA	Euro France	Euro Cyprus	Euro Italy
Cup of coffee - café/bar	£2.85	£0.85	£0.94	£1.32	£1.09	£2.84	£0.85
Bottle of Heineken (or similar) – café/bar	£4.79	£1.42	£2.51	£3.65	£2.46	£3.67	£1.89
Bottle of Coca-Cola - café/bar	£2.74	£0.95	£8.28	£0.96	£2.46	£3.22	£1.89
Bottle of mineral water – supermarket	£0.57	£0.80	£0.75	£0.83	£0.28	£1.89	£0.31
Suncream (factor 15) – supermarket	£3.42	£10.41	£8.78	£7.95	£12.78	£12.30	£11.36
Insect repellent – supermarket	£3.42	£3.79	£1.88	£3.31	£4.16	£4.73	£4.73
Packet of Marlboro Lights cigarettes	£2.28	£2.37	£1.25	£2.65	£5.30	£4.02	£4.16
3 course evening meal for 2 adults (including bottle of house wine in local restaurant)	£45.64	£47.33	£43.90	£50.22	£42.59	£39.75	£47.33
TOTAL COSTS	£65.71	£67.92	£68.29	£70.89	£71.12	£72.42	£72.52

 

ITEMS	Turkey	Jamaica	Barbados	Australia	Mexico	Antigua	St Lucia
Cup of coffee - café/bar	£2.24	£1.08	£1.03	£1.81	£0.79	£2.09	£2.02
Bottle of Heineken (or similar) – café/bar	£2.24	£2.81	£1.71	£3.51	£1.32	£2.09	£0.78
Bottle of Coca-Cola - café/bar	£2.24	£1.06	£1.03	£1.17	£1.06	£1.57	£0.91
Bottle of mineral water – supermarket	£0.51	£2.13	£1.71	£1.05	£0.40	£1.31	£0.78
Suncream (factor 15) – supermarket	£5.59	£7.63	£4.11	£4.60	£7.66	£7.99	£8.60
Insect repellent – supermarket	£1.79	£5.62	£5.13	£2.51	£2.48	£5.46	£2.08
Packet of Marlboro Lights cigarettes	£2.46	£7.23	£4.45	£8.02	£1.48	£1.83	£5.72
3 course evening meal for 2 adults (including bottle of house wine in local restaurant)	£58.14	£52.18	£61.58	£58.43	£71.32	£65.28	£73.11
TOTAL COSTS	£75.21	£79.74	£80.75	£81.10	£86.51	£87.62	£94.00

ITEMS	New Zealand	Brazil
Cup of coffee - café/bar	£1.91	£1.08
Bottle of Heineken (or similar) – café/bar	£3.35	£1.29
Bottle of Coca-Cola - café/bar	£1.68	£0.43
Bottle of mineral water – supermarket	£0.86	£1.08
Suncream (factor 15) – supermarket	£8.23	£7.76
Insect repellent – supermarket	£4.55	£1.73
Packet of Marlboro Lights cigarettes	£5.27	£2.16
3 course evening meal for 2 adults (including bottle of house wine in local restaurant)	£74.19	£86.28
TOTAL COSTS	£100.04	£101.81

  2 Post Office Rating Game Top 10: Currencies weakening most against sterling year on year.

Country	% +/- 2010 v 2009	January 2010	January 2009
Jamaica -  dollar	+21.40	124.56	102.60
Egypt – pound	+13.97	7.97	6.99
Dubai - UAE dirham	+12.63	5.52	4.90
Antigua/St Lucia – EC dollar	+12.37	3.83	3.41
Hungaiy – forint	+9.40	274.91	251.30
USA – dollar	+9.34	1.51	1.38
Croatia – kuna	+7.90	7.46	6.91
Thailand- baht	+7.47	48.83	45.43
Turkey –lira	+7.14	2.24	2.09
Czech Republic – koruna	+6.96	26.57	24.84

  Source:  Post Office. Data relates to exchange rates on 4 January 2010.

About First Rate Foreign Exchange Services:

First Rate is the UK’s leading provider of foreign currency services supplying over 11,500 retail outlets with a foreign currency service. It is the UK’s biggest foreign currency notes supplier and Europe’s major provider of traveller’s cheques and in the top five globally. First Rate sources currency through its associate business unit Bank of Ireland First Currency Services, one of the world’s leading wholesale currency operations.

First Rate can provide UK retailers and businesses with the following foreign currency services:

• Travel Money Online – a service enabling the ordering of foreign currency notes and traveller’s cheques securely via First Rate’s white label internet application
• Bulk provision of currency for currency retailers
• End-to-end consumer order processing – totally outsourced, white label currency solutions for phone, internet or retail outlet order placement

For further information, please contact:

Four Countries Communications
Ruth Barker
Tel: 0207 749 9219
Mobile: 07814 571128
Email: ruth@fourcountries.co.uk

First Rate Exchange Services Ltd is registered in the UK and Supervised by HM Revenue & Customs for Money Service Business (MSB): License number 12133160. First Rate is a joint venture between The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland (Registered in Ireland and passported into the UK for regulatory purposes) and the Post Office^® Ltd. The Bank of Ireland is authorised by the Irish Financial Regulator and the Financial Services Authority for the conduct of business in the UK. Bank of Ireland First Currency Services is a division of The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland.