Dear Sir,
(Re: Travel companies defend higher prices, by Chris Togneri, Vol. 4 No. 29, Nov. 23 - 29). The Canadian lady in your article may have been "shocked" to learn that she had to pay a little bit more for her ticket, but that's nothing new in Slovakia.
I have travelled extensively to and from Slovakia since the 70's. Under the Communists it was normal for tourists to pay more. Also normal was the requirement that you had to exchange a fixed amount of US dollars on a daily basis.
There are still a lot of policies in Slovakia that aren't fair, like needing a visa to go to England or getting ripped off flying C.S.A (Czecho-Slovak Airlines), or even paying $4 for a gallon of gas. But I guess what comes around goes around, because if Slovaks visit New York, a half-liter bottle of Slovak beer will cost them about $4 or 145 Sk, while in Poprad the same bottle is only 18 Sk!
But maybe we should go back to before 1989 when beer was only 3-5 crowns. Oh, those were the days!
Yours,
