Currently in Egypt and they just asked us to pay in USD cash for an added activity but, not being American, we don’t have USD. We have the local currency and the ability to get that out at ATMs, but no way to access foreign currency. So annoying but they accepted local in the end.

  • Marruk@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I don’t think its too uncommon for tourist areas to try to pressure tourists to pay with foreign currency that has a favorable exchange rate to the local currency. That way they can make extra money by quoting a figure in USD (or other currency) that they know they can exchange for much more than the regular cost in local currency. If pressured with “I don’t have USD, so its either local currency or I go elsewhere” they’ll usually give in and accept local currency.

    Edit: More likely it is simply because Egypt’s local currency is in a terrible state, so USD is much less likely to lose value: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/05/the-egyptian-pound-is-amongst-the-worst-performing-currencies-in-2023.html