Peter Scoggins, a health-club employee from Birmingham, Britain, made a four-day holiday shopping trip to Manhattan, where the depreciating American dollar will save him about $100 on an iPod digital-music player he’s going to buy.

“It’s cheaper than back home,” said Mr. Scoggins, 37, who also planned to shop at Saks Fifth Avenue and Gap Inc.’s upscale Banana Republic chain. “With the dollar, it’s a bonus and it came at the right time.”

The 8.3% gain in the euro, and the dollar’s drop to near five-year lows against the yen are fueling the first annual increase in international visitors to America since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Luxury retailers such as Neiman Marcus Group benefit because tourists are more likely to splurge on expensive items when their money goes further, said Walter Loeb, president of retail consultant Loeb & Associates in New York.

“We are seeing an influx of Europeans,” Mr. Loeb said. “We are seeing more Japanese again, and they are big buyers of gifts. New York department stores such as Bloomingdale’s and Tiffany will do very well.”

The number of overseas visitors to America surged 13% through September compared with a year ago, according to the Department of Commerce. Last year, tourists spent an average of $2,300 a visit, excluding transportation, and they are spending more this year, said the director of research, Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau in Florida, Kelly Repass.

“With the exchange rate, it is like a major sale to visitors,” Ms. Repass said. “They have tended to shop even more.”

The pound has risen 10% in the past year, and the yen has gained 3.7% relative to the American dollar. The dollar traded at $1.3396 to the euro at 2:13 a.m. in New York, $1.9455 to the pound ,and at 103.98 yen.

Sales at luxury retail stores open at least a year have been stronger during the holidays compared with discounters and department stores. Sales at Neiman Marcus, which caters to people with average annual incomes of about $190,000, rose 6.6% in November. Wal-Mart Stores, whose average customer earns $40,000 a year, had a less-than-forecast 1.7% gain.

Retailers are expected to boost discounts this week after posting sluggish holiday sales, Mr. Loeb said. The International Council of Shopping Centers forecasts that sales at stores open at least a year will rise 3%, down from last year’s 4% increase.

Shares of Neiman Marcus fell $1.16 to $71.03 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They’ve risen 32% this year.

In New York, the largest market for international tourists, the number of visitors jumped 20%, while visitors rose 19% in Orlando, 17% in Honolulu, and 15% in San Francisco, according to the Commerce Department.

“I happen to love a weak dollar,” developer Donald Trump said in a December 2 interview. “There is nothing better for New York real estate.”

Mr. Trump leases retail and residential space in Manhattan. His Trump Tower on New York’s Fifth Avenue has an Asprey luxury store, which sells merchandise including jewelry, shoes, and rare books.

The “increased levels of tourism” contributed to higher sales at Tiffany & Co.’s New York flagship store, up 14% in the first nine months, spokesman Mark Aaron said in New York.

“New York is a wonderful place to visit,” Mr. Aaron said. “When they come to New York, they like to visit Tiffany.”

Tiffany’s sales in the first nine months of 2004 rose 10%.

Shares of Tiffany, the biggest American luxury jewelry retailer, rose 27 cents to $30.95.This year, the shares have fallen 28%,hurt by declining sales in Japan.

Retailers including Federated Department Stores Inc.’s Bloomingdale’s and Burberry Group Plc’s Manhattan location have benefited from the wave of foreign tourists, said Cristyne Nicholas, president of NYC & Company, New York City’s tourism marketing agency.

“Shopping is a key component to any visit to New York,” Ms. Nicholas said.

Bloomingdale’s spokeswoman Kelly McKay and Burberry spokesman John Cross declined to comment.

Federated’s comparable store sales rose 2.8% in the fiscal year through November. Shares of the company rose 30 cents to $54.65 and increased 16% for the year.

The New York tourist agency earlier this year started running television and radio commercials in Japan, using New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui to promote the city. The ads and the decline in the dollar helped prompt an estimated 40% gain in visits by Japanese tourists so far this year, according to the agency. The Japanese tourists typically bring home gifts for relatives and coworkers, known as Omiyage.

In San Francisco’s Union Square, an upscale shopping district, Daniel Barrett from Galway, Ireland, was carrying a new pair of running shoes he bought at a Niketown store. Mr. Barrett, a 23-year-old electrician, said the strong euro made shopping more palatable as he visited stores with his girlfriend, Julie Costello, 20.

In Florida, 93% of international visitors included shopping on their itinerary, more than the 87% who said they visited Orlando’s theme parks such as Walt Disney World, according to a 2003 survey by the Florida tourism group. Popular destinations include the Mall at Millenia, where stores included Bloomingdale’s and Tiffany, Ms. Repass said.

At closely held Bond No. 9 in New York, sales are rising about 30% this year, boosted by gains at a Madison Avenue location, where European tourists buy $45-an-ounce perfumes such as Wall Street and Eau de New York.

“The tourists are back in New York this holiday,” said Laurice Rahme, president and founder of Bond No. 9, which operates three perfume stores in New York and supplies products to Saks. “The Europeans are the big deal right now. They want New York in a bottle.”