A Letter From the Publisher

By John A. Meyers

To report this week's cover story on the U.S. tourist migration, TIME correspondents around the world spoke with government officials, exchange dealers, bankers, travel agents, hoteliers and shopkeepers. In Europe, center of the friendly invasion, the magazine's reporters buttonholed American travelers to learn about the latest buys. They, along with Senior Writer Otto Friedrich, an enthusiastic vacationer who wrote the story, also drew on their own experiences coping with a dollar that used to be weak and is now strong.

London Correspondent Mary Cronin spends many of her free weekends haunting English antique fairs. "Three years ago," she says, "I used to buy only bric-a-brac, which was all I could afford. I remember admiring, but not buying, a pair of beautiful Victorian lace curtains that cost (pounds)45, or $84 then. Two months ago, I became the proud owner of two pairs of those curtains for $80. Hog heaven!"

Paris Correspondent B.J. Phillips, a recent arrival from TIME's Atlanta bureau, took advantage of the favorable rates to buy a dressing table for her new apartment. "I searched one of the famous Parisian flea markets for an antique coiffeuse," she says. "It is precisely what I wanted: a place to fix my coiffure. I found one 19th century piece in mint condition and at a good price, but it had just been bought by another American, who was paying an additional $500 to ship it to New York. Maybe the exchange rate is getting a little too favorable." Phillips, a budding oenophile, is hoping the healthy dollar will help expand another horizon. "In the U.S.," she says, "I was known for finding the best cheap wines. Here in France, I'd like to become famous for knowing the best cheap expensive wines."

Rome Reporters Walter Galling and Leonora Dodsworth find that the strong dollar hasn't changed their lives. Says Galling: "There's a little thing here called inflation." Munich Reporter Franz Spelman recalls the sad days of the wilting dollar. "Just eight years ago," he says, "some Germans, remembering the CARE packages that Americans sent after World War II, began giving the families of needy U.S. servicemen toys, clothing and furniture."

Paris-based Europe Correspondent Lawrence Malkin, who tapped public officials and financial specialists, likes to remind his colleagues that exchange rates have a history of fluctuating erratically. "The glittering American literary colony in Paris in the 1920s didn't go home because the wellsprings of creativity had dried up," he observes. "It was because the exchange rate shifted after 1929 and suddenly Paris wasn't cheap anymore. Americans should enjoy this city while they can."