The Canadian dollar is the strongest it's been in more than a decade compared to the U-S dollar. While the American greenback is still worth more, the change could mean more Canadians spending time and money in New Hampshire. New Hampshire Public Radio's Amy Quinton reports.
For several years, Americans have had the luxury of getting about 50-cents more on their dollar when shopping in Canada.
But now, the Canadian dollar is stronger and the US advantage has slipped to just 19 cents.
Place the blame on oil prices, says Peter Iverson with Citizens Bank's Foreign Exchange Group.
He says Canada is America's second largest supplier of gas and oil.
"The fact that the oil price is rising at the rate it has been is actually benefited Canada quite a bit, its reflected in the US Canadian trade balance we're running a little over a 5 billion dollar monthly trade deficit, a majority of that is the energy component"
American businesses may not feel the effects of the currency change for a few more months.
That's because many companies lock in business contracts at a set exchange rate.
The impact will come when the contracts are renegotiated says John Riley, Vice President of Currency Risk Management at Citizens Bank.
"Which bodes well for companies here in New Hampshire and New England that will be able to sell their products into Canada more competitively and it will make it more difficult for Canadian companies to sell here in the states"
The strength of the Canadian dollar will also likely mean more tourism to New Hampshire.
Tourism officials say they've already seen an 11% increase in Canadian travel to the state in the last two years.
New Hamsphire Director of Travel of Tourism Development Alice Desouza.
"Given the favorable conditions that we see right now with the increase in Canadian dollar and people wanting to travel closer to home we feel that that trend should continue."
Desouza says tour bus business is booming, and Canadians are taking advantage of New Hampshire's multi-location ski packages.
New Hampshire ski resorts had stopped heavily marketing to Canadians.
But Karl Stone with Ski NH, says that may change now.
"Now that we're seeing the dollar coming back we are beginning to increase our efforts a bit more north of the border and we really see a fair amount of people come from Ontario because there's not real good skiing there so a lot of people come and spend as much as a week. "
Some analysts are predicting the Canadian dollar may reach parity with the U-S dollar.
Others say that's a stretch.
But so long as the Canadian currency remains strong, New Hampshire businesses stand to reap the benefits -which may be some consolation for the higher energy prices that everyone is paying.
For NHPR news, I'm Amy Quinton.
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