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T
he pessimistic near-term future
forecasts of economists and
analyists have permeated the
public consciousness. There are
those who remain upbeat and less af-
fected than others, but by and large
people are uneasy about the future. Eva
and Phillip Southcombe provide a case
in point. They now only spend money
on necessities, such as education, food
and rent. They do not buy many new
things and they live simply. According
to them, economic difficulties are af-
fecting tourism badly too.
“We came on holiday for one week
on the Mekong River, from Cambodia
down to Vietnam,” said Phillip, “and al-
though this is the best time for tourism,
there were only 20 people on the boat
built for 60.”
Phillip told Timeout that discount
products help them save more mon-
ey. “We don’t go to top fashion stores
or anything like that. We usually seek
out discount things, and the Internet
is really convenient for us to search for
good places.”
Phillip believed that these diffi-
culties are not confined to his home
nation: “No matter whether they are
Australian, British or American, globally
people are watching how they spend
and are spending less because of uncer-
tainty about the economy.”
Others Timeout spoke to shared the
same feelings. Cray Boorman, a hydrol-
ogist from England, said that last year
he spent around $19,000 in total. “I’m
saving for the next few years because
I want to buy a house. I’m always inter-
ested in discount products.”
Frank Hausmann, a freelance jour-
nalist and technical assistant from Ber-
lin, aims to save money, just as he did
last year. “In Europe, the economy is not
so good for the moment and we expect
that it will a little bit harder than last
year. The market will go down a little bit
but not as dramatically as in 2008.” He
also has no plans to upgrade or change
his possession because he has less mon-
ey in his. Frank also has a family which
adds extra pressure: “We have two little
children, so we spend a lot on them;
we had been waiting for this holiday [to
Vietnam] for five years. We earn money
and we spend that money – there are
no savings left. We have to spend a lot
on rent and food. We are not looking for
special prices, since there’s no money
left for shopping now.”
Another tourist, Stephan Unger,
42, from Reutlingen, Germany, does
not care much about saving money, but
11
timeout
Tightening
belts
Theworldeconomylookssettodeterioratethisyear,asNourelRoubini
andmanyothereconomistspredictedmonthsago.Withwagesdown
andtheretailmarketgloomy,consumersareincreasinglyspendingless
by searching out discount products, writes
Bui Hoa
get more, pay less