Rupee or bust

Traveling to India? You’ll want to leave your U.S. currency behind.

Got a wallet full of greenbacks? As of the end of November, they won’t get you into many popular tourist attractions in India. According to an article in the New Zealand Herald, the falling U.S. currency has prompted India's Ministry for Tourism and Culture to rule that it will no longer be accepted as payment to enter popular destinations, such as the Taj Mahal. The decision comes as part of a move to avoid losses due to the changing exchange rate.

Consider: In the past, travellers could use their greenbacks to pay a set entry fee of USD $5.00 – back when $1.00 was roughly equivalent to 50 rupees. Today, one U.S. dollar is only worth 39 rupees. The “flat fee” means that the Indian government now loses 55 rupees per visitor.

In response, the government has now fixed the admission rate for foreign tourists at 250 rupees. U.S. tourists will notice a rise in price of more than a dollar.