Tourism in Venezuela

  • View from Las Mercedes on the El Avila mountain range,capital Caracas,

    VENEZUELA, 2013/10/24 The new checks, launched this month, have contributed to infuriating, hours-long queues at the Simon Bolivar international airport, which serves Caracas, Venezuela's capital. So-called “currency tourism” has become a major problem for President Nicolas Maduro's populist government as Venezuelans make profits using a play on the South American country's tightly regulated foreign exchange system. There are strict limits on the availability of dollars at the official rate of 6.3 bolivars per dollar. But with an airline ticket, an individual can exchange Venezuelan bolivars for up to 3,000 dollars at that rate. A lot of of those greenbacks are diverted for sale on the black market, where each dollar can fetch about seven times the official rate.