Conor Pope

But do it knowing that you're paying through the nose first and there's probably better value to be found 50 metres left or right.

Oh 100% because you're sometimes if you put money into an ATM now it doesn't happen when we're travelling around Europe obviously because of the Euro but if you're in you know outside of the Eurozone and you put your card into an ATM it'll say you know do you want this conversion rate and you'll be offered a conversion rate.

You know it's going to be bad value.

Banks

do not traditionally offer us the best value for money.

So you decline the conversion at the card machine and you wait for your own bank at home to give you a different rate.

You will get the actual rate on the day and the moment you made the transaction if you decline the conversion rate that the ATM is offering you.

And it's almost certainly going to be better value in the same way that you should never use the currency or the foreign exchange in an airport.

They're going to rip you off.

So just be mindful of that.

I always think you should pay in local currencies, even when you're tapping or even when you're using your credit card or your debit card, and they will use the actual conversion rate as opposed to some spurious rate that some overseas bank has decided to charge at any given moment.

I think there's plenty of holidays out there.

I think there was a sluggish demand amongst tour operators.

I spoke to some people in recent days and they said the demand was around 20% down on where they would normally expect it to be at this time of year.

That means there is demand out there for people who want to book overseas holidays.

I think there was a bit of concern in the early stages of the war in Iran about whether or not overseas travel would be dramatically restricted.

And if it was, we were all having these flashbacks to COVID times.

Yes.

What would happen if we had to go on staycations again?

Similarly, in an Irish hotel context, demand is sluggish.