For foreign shoppers, a weak dollar is wunderbar, utmärkt, trÈs bien

Andrea Guðjónsdóttir arrived in Minnesota from Iceland last week with nothing but the clothes on her back. Oh, and two empty suitcases, which she promptly filled to near-bursting with clothes, toys and other gifts during a five-day shopping spree in the Twin Cities.

"Everything's so cheap," said Guðjónsdóttir, 35, who lives in Akranes, a seaport city on Iceland's west coast. "You can pay $30 for Levi's here; at home, it'd be $200."

Guðjónsdóttir joins a growing number of shoppers across the world who are coming to the U.S. -- and Minnesota -- this holiday season to take advantage of good deals against the falling dollar. At a time when the U.S. economy is sagging, retailers say foreign tourists are providing a hedge against a Christmas season that's expected to be the slowest in five years.

"We're super shoppers," Guðjónsdóttir said with pride. "Crazy shoppers!" countered her husband, Bjarki Sigurðsson.

The two said they spent about $2,000-- a bargain, they said, as Iceland's notorious taxes and cost of living jack up the price of nearly everything. In recent months, the Icelandic krona has been at one of its strongest points against the dollar since 2005.

But Iceland isn't the only place where George Washington is losing face. The euro is at its strongest mark against the dollar since the European single currency was launched in 1999. Brits are getting more dollars for their pound than anytime since 1981.

As for the Canadian dollar ("loonie"), a longtime loser against its U.S. counterpart, deals on American soil haven't been this good since 1976, when Montreal hosted the Summer Olympics.

"It's making us a bit of a bargain," said John Edman, director of Explore Minnesota Tourism, the state's tourism arm.

Minnesota's top shopping draw is, of course, the Mall of America, the largest enclosed center in the country. Daily direct flights on Northwest Airlines from Tokyo, Amsterdam and London help make Minnesota an easy sell for tour operators. (Icelandair has daily flights between Minneapolis and Reykjavik as well.)

The Bloomington mall has drawn about 7 percent more foreign shoppers during the first 10 months of the year than a year ago, said Doug Killian, the mall's tourism director.

"We really promote the no sales tax on clothing and shoes in Minnesota," said Killian, who teams with the state and the Bloomington Convention and Visitors Bureau to attract international tourists. "It's a huge cost saving for most foreign visitors. Our base prices are generally lower than even New York."

Canadians are Minnesota's top foreign shopper, followed by those from the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and the Nordic countries of Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

With that purchasing power boost, Canadians spent 22 percent more in Minnesota in 2006 than the year before, for a total of $249 million, according to the most recent figures compiled by the Canadian government.

But other centers are also trying to get their share. Albertville Premium Outlets directed a Nov. 10 promotion at Canadian tourists who hold a motoring club discount card. Traffic that day jumped 200 percent, said Michele Rothstein, spokeswoman for the outlet mall's owner, New Jersey-based Chelsea Premium Outlets.

And when it comes to the "Big Olympics of shopping," today's day-after Thanksgiving sales, Rothstein expects Canadian tourists to come by the busload.

Propping up luxury

High-end stores also are benefiting from the falling dollar. After all, that Louis Vuitton bag bought for cheap in San Francisco carries more cachet than one twice the cost in Milan.

Some retail analysts attributed Saks' better-than-expected 11 percent increase in same-store sales last month in part to spending by foreign tourists at its 5th Avenue store in New York. Similar trends are holding for Neiman Marcus in major cities across the U.S.

"New York has always felt this phenomenon, with people coming there in search of high-end luxury items," said Akash Dave, a retail analyst for Morningstar in Chicago. "Now it's spreading to places like Las Vegas and Orlando and other tourist-heavy cities. The luxury segment benefits from the weak dollar."

Many U.S. stores are seeing a boost in international traffic to their online sites, too, though Wal-Mart and Apple.com are among those that don't ship outside the U.S. British shoppers have increased visits to U.S. retail websites by 92 percent this year, according to Pricerunner, an online price comparison site.

A room and a scale

But for those willing to fly, many Minnesota businesses have open arms.

The Holiday Inn near the Mall of America in Bloomington provides a meeting room where foreigners on shop-'til-they-drop sprees can store their bags and plop them on a scale to make sure they won't be fined by the airlines for overweight luggage.

Evie Walters, director of sales of the Holiday Inn in Bloomington, has created a pipeline with Icelandic tour agencies. Icelanders travel to the hotel from mid-October to mid-December, Walters said, shopping long hours at the Mall of America, SuperTargets and downtown Minneapolis. Many don't bat an eye at forking over $100 for a taxi trip to the outlet mall in Albertville. On checkout day, sometimes there are so many extra shopping packages, the hotel calls in an extra shuttle bus just for the luggage

Guðbjörg Ásgeirsdóttir, 43, also of Akranes, Iceland, said she was both exhausted and exhilarated after a recent five-day power-shopping trip in Minnesota. She and her husband said they spent between $2,000 and $3,000.

"We'll be back, if the dollar doesn't go up," she said.

Jackie Crosby • 612-673-7335

Jackie Crosby • jcrosby@startribune.com