The student's project analyzes popular and affordable holiday destinations. They will create graphs and tables showing the cheapest world currencies against the British pound and the most popular holiday locations from 2011-2012. Research so far found that the Vietnamese dong is the cheapest currency, while European countries are generally more popular destinations than other continents. The student collected exchange rate data from several companies to calculate average rates for the euro and US dollar.

1. My project for Application of Number is going to be about holidays. I have
decided on this topic because I want to help people choose a popular and
cheap destination for their holiday baring in mind those two factors don’t
always go together.
I am going to analyse data found online of popular holiday destinations
over a number of years. I will put this information together and show the
overall results in a graph. I shall also share information using a table to
demonstrate some of the cheapest currencies against the English pound. I
also found the average exchange rate against the pound for Euros and
American Dollars.
I have carried out some research looking for the cheapest currencies
against the pound sterling. I found some information on the Telegraphs
website
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/9672926/Theworlds-least-valuable-currencies.html?frame=2396164) showing the 10
cheapest currencies in the world compared to our currency.
~1~

2. With this information I created a table showing the different currencies.
Currency
Vietnamese dong
Indonesian rupiah
Columbian peso
Tanzanian shilling
South Korean's won
Chilean peso
Hungarian forint
Pakistani rupee
Kenyan shillings
Japanese yen
Number to GBP £
33,000
15,300
2,880
2,500
1,730
760
350
152
135
126
All of these countries would be a cheap holiday as they are the 10 cheapest
currencies in the world.
This table shows that by far the cheapest holiday (spending money) would
be the Vietnamese dong which is an incredible 33,000 Dong to the English
Pound.
I did attempt to transform this information into a chart but because the
range of currency is so vast between the 1st 5 and the last 5 currencies it did
not look presentable there for it is more appropriate to present the
information as a table rather than a chart.
I have researched on the internet for the most popular holiday destination
in 2012 and found results for this year and the year before (2011). I have
used the information in the table below to form a bar chart showing which
destination is most possible and the increase or decrease in popularity over
the 2 years.
~2~

3. The graph below shows that by far the European countries are far more
popular than the rest in the different continents. The table shows that in
2012 there is a percentage increase of holiday makers for every country
compared to 2011. This shows that more and more people are taking the
opportunity to go on holiday when they can. I have worked out in rough
that the percentage difference in holiday makers between the U.K. and
France in 2011 is 64% and then in 2012 65%.
~3~

4. Tourist arrivals
100
80
Millions of 60
people
40
2012
2011
Malaysia
Russia
U.K.
Germany
Turkey
Italy
Spain
China
USA
0
France
20
Country
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings#cite_noteWTO_Tourism_Highlights_2013_Edition-6
The most popular holiday destinations are in Europe and the US. I have
researched some companies on the internet competing with exchange
exchange rates for the Euro and American Dollar compared to the Pound
Sterling and transferred the information into a table.
~4~

5. Company
Travelex
The Travel Club
Debenhams
Post Office
Moneycorp
Sainsbury’s Bank
American Express
Euro
US Dollar
1.179
1.183
1.189
1.169
1.181
1.178
1.180
1.600
1.611
1.614
1.584
1.606
1.599
1.599
Global Reach Patterns
1.186
1.610
VIDA FX
1.184
1.607
ICE PLC
1.186
1.610
http://www.money.co.uk/travel-money/travel-money-exchange-rates.htm
4th December 2013
Using this information I found the mean, median and mode figure so that
people at this current time looking to exchange their money should know
what kind of rate to expect. The mean figure will be the average out of all
the figures I have collected. The median is the middle number out all the
figures and the mode will be the most frequent figure I come across.
Euro
Mean
1.182
Median
1.182
Mode
1.186
Dollar
Mean
1.604
Median
1.6065
~5~
Mode
1.599, 1.610

6. The exchange rates change all the time (day to day) so these figures can
easily change but for people looking to change their money in Euros or
Dollars now they should expect figures like;
 Euro
 Dollar
– 1.182 to 1.186
– 1.604 to 1.610
I collected a non ICT document from a travel agent (The Travel House)
showing their current exchange rates dated to the 22nd of January 2014.
 Euro
 Travelex
-1.174
-1.210
 Dollar
 Travelex
-1.590
-1.639
These figures are slightly different to the ones that I averaged but the
exchange rate never stays the same and keeps changing. I calculated these
figures on the 4th of December and received the non ICT document on the
22nd January so obviously during those two dates the exchange rates
changed which is to be expected.
~6~

7. This is a chart that I have created from raw data. I got this information from
the Office for Nation Statistics website to show visits abroad from the U.K.
from 2005 to 2010. As you can see at the end of the year 2007 there is a
large decrease in visits. This is more than likely to be because of the
recession. Holidays are seen as a luxury for families and because businesses
were going bankrupt e.g. airlines less people were going on holiday. Instead
they were choosing to stay local and save money. Also because of the
recession business visits were affected and decreased. The number of visits
for friends and relatives stayed pretty consistent throughout those years
but also showed a slight decrease when recession hit.
~7~

8. In my holiday project I have found that the cheapest currency in the world
is the Vietnamese Dong. I have also found out that France and the USA are
the most popular holiday destinations in 2012. People looking to change
their money in Euros or Dollars at this current time should expect a rate
above.
I checked my calculations that I did by hand using a calculator just to make
sure my figures are correct. Also it was reassuring to see that when out and
about coming across a few organisations that were promoting their
exchange rates were showing figures in between my averages.
(Euro – 1.182 to 1.186, Dollar – 1.604 to 1.610)
~8~