We are bringing people from countries around the globe to Europe to use trains, either point-to-point or as part of a package, combined with hotels and flights. Looking on the global map, we have inbound markets like the U.S., which have recovered completely and have shown strong growth. But we're still challenged in some Asian markets. Japan just opened in March, and we still have visa issues for Chinese and Indians and flight capacity challenges from Australia.
From a geopolitical perspective: Challenging times. Looking at the Russia-Ukraine war, looking at the Middle East, it can impact source markets and also where people are traveling in Europe. We don't see it impacting our numbers at the moment. Fingers crossed, it will not escalate further. We're still very convinced that non-Europeans will continue to travel to the destinations they love in Europe.
We have high inflation in Europe and elsewhere, and we do see prices increasing for flights, for hotels, for everything. But the number of travelers is still increasing. Looking at the North American market, the euro is quite weak at the moment and the dollar is strong, so there are lots of opportunities for Americans traveling abroad. We're seeing inflation slowing in the U.S. Americans seem less worried about it.
We are feeling very positive about 2024. The only thing that we need to take into consideration is that it will be an election year, and that's always tricky. We know that can cause some slowdown.
Americans, of course, love to travel. We're seeing fewer first-timers. Many of the ones coming now have already visited London, Paris and Rome, and they want to see destinations in Europe that they haven't visited before. So we're seeing an increase for Eastern European countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary and also to the Nordic countries and Portugal. Our customers have always been able to visit these with our Eurail Pass, but very soon in 2024, we will also be adding the ability to purchase point-to-point tickets within the Portuguese and Swedish rail systems as well as in a couple more Eastern European countries.
We are a tech company, or a tech product company, let's say. Our main approach is to reduce complexity for the traveler because when we talk about European rail, we are not talking about one market. We are talking about 30, 40, 50 different markets, each with different rules, tariffs, languages, currencies, everything. We just launched a new application programming interface (API) solution for tour operators and travel agencies that haven't had a chance to invest in a complete API. We can give back-end and front-end support to get an API completely integrated in four weeks. It's outstanding, a completely new product for the travel trade for 2024.
We will continue to be very close to the U.S. travel trade, to invest in technology, in communications, in marketing, in education. This is key for us and an area where we believe we need to be successful.
It has been to our advantage that train travel is being seen as a sustainable alternative form of transportation. We provide a very clean and sustainable product. France, for instance, has banned some short domestic flights. But we also know that convenience, price and safety are the first criteria people consider when deciding which type of transportation to take. Sustainability comes in at maybe six, seven or eight. We are very proud to be sustainable, but focusing on sustainability will not help the rail industry. We focus on the convenience part and on reducing complexity.
Looking ahead, we'll plan to add additional products, additional connections in Europe and new night trains. We're complementing our product portfolio in ways that give us a really very positive perspective on the next year.
This interview was conducted by Arnie Weissmann.