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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It was dirt cheap in Greece, parts of France, Portugal. Greece was ridiculously cheap. Then, post-euro, France became $$$ overnight! [/quote]

Not true! I was at uni in France in 1998, and wound up working for a French company in 1999. Toward the end of '98 and into '99 prices in France were chaotic, as people were confused by the math. Also euro was below parity vs USD until 2002, so everything seemed cheap (for those with US dollars) immediately after the introduction of the euro. It took some time before prices jumped in a meaningful way.

Looking at crowds across the Euro zone in more recent times, the biggest difference I see is the huge growth in travelers from China. Chinese investors accounted for 50% of Portuguese golden visa applications. I remember rueing my bad timing, when I walked into the Duomo just as a mega-tour group was filing out of 3 busses, and waiting as ~200 Chinese tourists each took an obligatory photo before shuffling to a nearby Chinese restaurant for their pre-paid meal. The lines outside of Goyard/Hermes/etc in Paris shifted from Japanese to Chinese over the years (as did the signage and language of SAs). I think the increase of wealth in China and appetite for foreign travel from a huge Asian market has been a very big factor in increased tourism not just in Europe, but other parts of Asia (esp Thailand) too. From 2006-2016, Chinese travel to EU more than tripled - far outpacing other non-EU countries. (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Tourism_statistics_-_EU_and_China). Covid stopped this for a while, but I think it's back to pre-pandemic levels again.

Also, more recently, the 'influencer' trend has also pushed this (obv not just in Europe). And filming trends - GoT alone created dedicated tours in Ireland, Croatia, etc that are still swamped at all hours and all times of year. No secret little towns or islands anymore (yes, pp who says that travel shouldn't be for the elite few, I hear you, but it was still nicer to enjoy places when you weren't pinned shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers).

As a dual national, I don't want pre-Euro EU. I love having the right to move somewhere else as work, love or curiosity compels. I love not having to carry a half dozen separate currencies. I love being able to look up EU laws/regulations in languages that I'm comfortable with. Even with right wing nationalists, I think people also see the example of Brexit and the wreckage it has caused the UK economy plus US tariff threats as good examples of why the EU needs to stand together. A lot of the nationalist sentiment is aimed at immigration - especially illegal immigration - as that threatens local housing supply, jobs, etc.[/quote]

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