Professional: Most (Un)Wanted Tourists?

Some say Brits, some say Germans, some even Russians or Chinese. But who are the worst tourists for you? What about the ‘ugly American’?

ARTICLES

Russians Are the Worst Tourists ... according to Brits

Samuel Dorsi

Russians have been named the worst tourists in the world, with voters claiming they are tracksuit-wearing, greedy, money-flashing oafs... who hide sunloungers in their hotel rooms. German tourists, previously the subject of many jocular complaints about hogging sunloungers at the crack of dawn, were knocked into second place by the newly-rich Russians. The 'world's worst holiday-maker' poll surveyed more than 1,000 British tourists who went on holiday abroad this summer. Russian holidaymakers...

Chinese Compete for Worst Tourist Label

Richard Moor

Influx of visitors from mainland China provokes culture clash at Taiwan's tourist sites. They deface Taiwan's scenic rock formations. They spit in public, cut in line and talk too loud. And to top it off, some even take shelter from the rain — and smoke cigarettes! — inside one of Taiwan's "sacred trees." A year after the island threw open its doors to Chinese tourist groups, Taiwan has a long list of complaints. Chinese tourists were supposed to give Taiwan's sagging economy a mu...

Chinese Tourists and the Reality of Faux Pas

William Law

Chinese in America have a long history of struggle. Over the past 30 years, hundreds of thousands of people from China have traveled to the US to study and/or to work. Many of them have returned, and some have stayed back to become contributing members of American society. But unlike in the past, the overall image of Chinese in the US today is more or less positive. One can readily list laudable examples, big and small, of how naturalized Chinese Americans have excelled in their fields and made...

Holidaying Brits Worst Behaved in Europe

Theodore Slate

British tourists have been named as the worst behaved in Europe, according to new research by Expedia. For the third year running, Europeans have also voted the Brits messy, bad tippers and very likely to complain. The Expedia Best Tourist Index, running annually since 2002, gauges the opinions of over 4,500 hoteliers worldwide to rank different nationalities on their behaviour abroad – everything from spending habits to their willingness to try and speak the local language. The global re...