The reputation of British travelers on holidays continues to worsen, and rightly so. Tourists from the British Isles cannot seem to keep themselves out of trouble. Even those who do not succumb to violence and disgrace due to drink and drugs still often lose their passport or outstay their visa welcome.
According to the latest British Behaviour Abroad report by the UK government, between April 2008 and March 2009 5,430 tourists from Britain needed consular assistance in Spain, 1,534 British citizens were arrested in the U.S., 433 were hospitalized in Greece and Britons accounted for a quarter of all arrests in Thailand.
Most of the unfortunate incidents involved drink and drugs, the former especially in Spain and Greece and the latter particularly in Asian countries. Britain has always been tarred with a binge drinking culture and holidays provide a perfect excuse for Britons to exploit it. The better prices provide a great incentive for British tourists to imbibe more when in mainland Europe.
According to sociologists there is also the important factor that many British tourists feel that as they belong to a big world power with a massive colonial history and their language is spoken all over the globe, this gives them the right to do what they want. Mix arrogance with the thug culture and low prices and this is a recipe for disaster.
The arrogance factor is reflected in the fact that a large number of Britons outstay the periods their visas allow them to stay in Asian countries. Perhaps another element is very relevant here: that Britain in recent times has never been subject to communist or totalitarian rule. Thus, the presumption that paper is just a paper and rules are made to be broken remains in British heads. Many members of other great populations, the Chinese and Russians for example would never dare take such risks.
Top 10 countries where Brits required the most consular assistance
1/ Spain
2/ USA
3/ Greece
4/ France
5/ Germany
6/ Cyprus
7/ India
8/ Thailand
9/ Czech Republic
10/ Australia
Since when has Britain been a great world power? Not for decades. You are right about arrogance, but fail to mention stupidity, lousy educational standards, rotten parenting, and a clueless government that is pathetically naive enough to introduce all-day drinking as if the natives would quietly sip a latte like they were in some continental bistro. For too many of my countrymen, Friday and Saturday nights means ten pints of lager, a curry, a punch up, followed by functional passionless sex, then another punch up. And that's just the women.
But please do not refer to us all as 'Brits'. That is a derogatory term, which is okay when applied to the brain dead drunks. The remainder of us (the majority, just) are the British or Britons.