The one country where the Aussie dollar is at a 30-year high
Travel feels so expensive, especially if you are heading to London and New York, but there is a place where you can get more value.
Japan is on the top of my list of countries that I desperately want to visit, and helping to put together this special issue made me want to go all the more. It seems I am not the only one; Japan recently knocked Bali off its perch as the most sought-after destination by Australians.
Figures from booking sites, search engines and credit cards show more people are heading there for holidays and not only from Australia, but around the world. According to the Japan National Tourism Organisation, just over 25 million people travelled to the country in 2023. So why is Japan so popular?
As our stories show, it has incredible food, unique culture, landscape and buzzing cities and high-speed trains to take you everywhere. But it is also the value proposition. Japan is one of the few countries where our dollar is higher than the local currency.
In fact, this week the Japanese yen reached a three-decade low against the Australian dollar, so you can still visit without needing to take out a bank loan.
Three colleagues recently came back from holidays in various parts of the world and although everyone reported having had a wonderful time, those who visited London and New York were possibly still in shock about how much prices had gone up since their last visit, before the pandemic.
Dinner in a decent restaurant in these big metropolises now sets you back hundreds of dollars – possibly in the thousands depending on how much wine is consumed. Breakfast at one luxury hotel in New York worked out to be $480 after currency conversion. Below-par coffees were the equivalent of $15 and a cocktail at a newly opened bar in London was $37.
No matter how much money you have in the bank or whatever type of holiday you are on, whether it be a luxury splurge, a bucket list adventure or a budget break, internally gasping in sheer shock every time you buy something does not make for a good time.
My third colleague had been on vacation in Japan, and her experience could not have been more different. She raved about how reasonable it was. It turns out one breakfast in New York equates to three nights at a nice hotel in Tokyo.
I definitely know where I am going next.
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