Most Obnoxious Tourists? The French

[Davidjewel]

By BRUCE CRUMLEY / PARIS Sun Jul 6, 10:45 PM ET

Remember the tightwad tourist whose baggy shorts, frequent complaining and shouted questions about why none of the locals spoke any English made the ugly American the world's Visitor From Hell? Well, it's time for Archie Bunker to move over and make way for Petulant Pierre. According to a recent international survey, the French are now considered the most obnoxious tourists from European nations, and behind only Indians and the last-place Chinese as the worst among all countries worldwide. And it's not only the rest of the world that have a gripe with the Gallic attitude: the French also finished second to last among nations ranking the popularity of their own tourists who vacation at home.
But it's the unflattering image being reflected from abroad that may give pause to the millions of French travelers now heading off to summer vacation destinations across the globe. Will that move them to improve behavior the poll characterized as impolite, prone to loud carping and inattentive to local customs? If so, that's just the start: the study also describes the voyageur fran├Зais as often unwilling or unable to communicate in foreign languages, and particularly disinclined to spending money when they don't have to - including on those non compris tips. Over all, French travelers landed 19th out of 21 nations worldwide, far behind the first-place Japanese, considered most polite, quiet and tidy. Following the

Japanese as most-liked tourists were the Germans, British and Canadians. Americans finished in 11th place alongside the Thais.
The survey was carried out among employees in 4,000 hotels in Germany, the U.K., Italy, France, Canada and the U.S. for the French travel website Expedia.fr. The study asked respondents to rank clients by nationality on criteria of general attitude, politeness, tendency to complain, willingness to speak local languages, interest in sampling local cuisine, readiness to spend money, generosity, cleanliness, discretion and elegance. Many replies simply conformed to long-established reputations: Italians, for example, were described as the best-dressed tourists, with the French not far behind.

American tourists fared well in some surprising ways: despite being notoriously language-limited, for example, they top the list of tourists credited with trying to speak local languages the most, with the French, Chinese, Japanese, Italians and Russians coming in last in the local language rankings. Does that mean Americans are the most polyglot tourists on the planet? Maybe not, says Expedia's marketing director for Europe, Timoth├Йe de Roux, who notes the poll's focus on hotel operators may explain the counterintuitive outcome.

"Most hotel staffs around the world speak English, meaning they'll communicate far more easily with native English-speaking American or British clients than with French or Italians who - it's true - are pretty bad with foreign languages," de Roux says.
De Roux explains how external factors similarly account for why Americans wind up as the biggest-spending and best-tipping tourists, while Germans and the French are among the worst penny-pinchers. "Our findings show the average French employee will get 37 vacation days spread over seven trips in 2008, versus 14 for an American - who won't even take them all," de Roux believes. "That means the French tourist will more tightly budget his or her spending over more trips, while the American spends freely on the one or two vacations taken all year."

By contrast, poll finds the French and Americans similar in being perceived as critical and rude when they travel - though for different reasons. The same local attractions that make France the world's top destination for 92 million foreign visitors each year, says de Roux, also explains why over 85% of French vacation in-country - and wind up spoiled by it when they leave. "When they go abroad, French travellers demand the same quality they'd get at home," de Roux says. "Americans, by contrast, demand the same exceptional service they are used to at home, which is why they rank as the loudest, most inclined to complain, and among the least polite." View this article on Time.com

[Smiles]

Not sure why Canadians would rank 4th most-liked tourists ('polite' maybe? I've heard that a lot). But this I know for certain ... Canadians will go well out of their way and to great lengths to make sure that The Locals do not mistake them for an American. Thinking there are numerous reasons for such behavior (some not polite either). I have lots of American friends (before umbrage is taken), but facts are facts.

Cheers ...

facts are facts.

Not here ...

[francois]

Not sure why Canadians But this I know for certain ... Canadians will go well out of their way and to great lengths to make sure that The Locals do not mistake them for an American.
Cheers ...

I don't think that the average Thai knows where Canada is or knows the difference between English speaking Canadians or USians. All same same. I cannot even distinguish the diff├йrence unless they speak French. And the Quebe├зois can be obnoxious even though Canadian.

The most obnoxious of any nationalit├й are the drunks.

[Bob]

Canadians (not counting the Quebec French) are generally quite affable and I've never met a Canadian tourist outside of Canada that seemed rude or out of line.
But I can wholeheartely agree with the article about French Tourists. By and large, when I've witnessed a rude tourist anywhere, more often than not the tourist is French. They've earned the "kee nok falang" label from me in Thailand several times.
I don't have any memory of rude Americans (other than myself) or Brits when I've been in Thailand. But maybe I don't get out much. I do recall that I and the bf have left a couple of bars (non-gay bars) because of what I perceived to be Australians were getting a bit loud and violent (for some reason, I perceived that we were the next victims in one bar so we left before we became the next rugby balls).

Other than that, the Indians (from India) have at times been a bit rude - with the special note that "most" of the ones I saw in Singapore would fit that category (worse than the French!).

Just personal observations.

[elephantspike]

Not sure why Canadians would rank 4th most-liked tourists ('polite' maybe? I've heard that a lot). But this I know for certain ... Canadians will go well out of their way and to great lengths to make sure that The Locals do not mistake them for an American. Thinking there are numerous reasons for such behavior (some not polite either). I have lots of American friends (before umbrage is taken), but facts are facts.

Cheers ...

I can be polite, too, asshole! :rolling:

:violent1:

[Smiles]

" ... asshole! :rolling: :violent1: ... "
So much for Distinguished Golden Members.
Isn't in the Guidelines somewhere that the Board Administrator cannot call the Board Members 'asshole', 'motherfucker', or 'prick'?

Cheers ...

[jinks]

Isn't in the Guidelines somewhere that the Board Administrator cannot call the Board Members 'asshole', 'motherfucker', or 'prick'?

Cheers ...

Thankfully NO.. pipsqueak

[ceejay]

It's not the French, or the Germans, the Russians or Irish or Dutch......

It's not the Chinese or Japanese or even the snake of Taiwanese women on a sightseeing trip in Boystown......

It's not the Americans, or the Canadians, or even Canadians mistaken for Americans......

It's not Kiwis or Australians, not even by the boatload......

It's not the Welsh or the Scots. It's not even the English, although I have, God knows, seen some that have made me wish, at least for a moment, that I was not one of them......

And should I ever meet them on our travels, I know it will not be the Brazilians, Uruguyans, Chileans or Argentinians......

Because there is a band of tourists who travel the world each adding the worst of their nation's characteristics to a great melting pot and, heads up their arses, add a special strain of self satisfied obnoxiousness common to them all, and unique to their brotherhood........

It's the backpackers.

[cottmann]

It's not the ........ It's the backpackers.

Hear, hear!

Particularly unwashed backpackers.

When it comes to not being able to speak foreign languages I would have thought the Brits were the worst offenders.

Surely it's the rest of the world which offends by mangling our language in their pitiable attempts to reach our noble standards; not least those of a transatlantic affliction.

Surely it's the rest of the world which offends by mangling our language in their pitiable attempts to reach our noble standards; not least those of a transatlantic affliction.

This isn't even a properly constructed sentence. Noble standards, indeed.

[Art]

http://i691.photobucket.com/albums/vv278/AdobeRGB/TOK/goethe-colour-circle-1809.gif

Conversations of Goethe by Johann Peter Eckermann: 11 March 1828


тАЬBut let us banish these hypochondriacal thoughts.How are you going on? What are you doing? What else have you seen to-day? Tell me, and inspire me with good thoughts.тАЭ

тАЬI have been reading Sterne.тАЭ returned I, тАЬwhere Yorick is sauntering about the streets of Paris, and makes the remark that every tenth man is a dwarf. I thought of that when you mentioned the vices of great towns. I also remember to have seen, in Napoleon's time, among the French infantry, one battalion which consisted entirely of Parisians, who were all such puny, diminutive people, that one could not comprehend what could be done with them in battle.тАЭ

тАЬThe Scotch Highlanders under the Duke of Wellington,тАЭ rejoined Goethe, тАЬwere doubtless heroes of another description.тАЭ

тАЬI saw them in Brussels a year before the battle of Waterloo,тАЭ returned I. тАЬThey were, indeed, fine men; all strong, fresh, and active, as if just from the hand of their Maker. They all carried their heads so freely and gallantly, and stepped so lightly along with their strong bare legs, that it seemed as if there were no original sin, and no ancestral failing, as far as they were concerned.тАЭ

тАЬThere is something peculiar in this,тАЭ said Goethe. тАЬWhether it lies in the race, in the soil, in the free political constitution, or in the healthy tone of education,тАФcertainly the English in general appear to have certain advantages over many others. Here in Weimar, we see only a few of them, and, probably, by no means the best; but what fine, handsome people they are. And however young / and 17 years old / they come here, they feel themselves by no means strange or embarrassed in this foreign atmosphere; on the contrary, their deportment in society is as full of confidence, and as easy as if they were lords everywhere, and the whole world belonged to them. This it is which pleases our women, and by which they make such havoc in the hearts of our young ladies. As a German father of a family, who is concerned for the tranquillity of his household, I often feel a slight shudder, when my daughter-in-law announces to me the expected arrival of some fresh, young islander. I already see in my mind's eye, the tears which will one day flow when he takes his departure. They are dangerous young people; but this very quality of being dangerous is their virtue.тАЭ

тАЬStill, I would not assert,тАЭ answered I, тАЬthat the young Englishmen in Weimar are more clever, more intelligent, better informed, or more excellent at heart than other people.тАЭ

тАЬThe secret does not lie in these things, my good friend,тАЭ returned Goethe, тАЬNeither does it lie in birth and riches; it lies in the courage which they have to be that for which nature has made them. There is nothing vitiated or spoilt about them, there is nothing halfway or crooked; but such as they are, they are thoroughly complete men. That they are also sometimes complete fools, I allow with all my heart; but that is still something, and has still always some weight in the scale of nature.

тАЬThe happiness of personal freedom, the consciousness of an English name, and of the importance attached to it by other nations, is an advantage even to the children; for in their own family, as well as in scholastic establishments, they are treated with far more respect, and enjoy a far freer development, than is the case with us Germans.

тАЬIn our own dear Weimar, I need only look out of the window to discover how matters stand with us. Lately, when the snow was lying upon the ground, and my neighbour's children were trying their little sledges in the street, the police was immediately at hand, and I saw the poor little things fly as quickly as they could. Now, when the spring sun tempts them from the houses, and they would like to play with their companions before the door, I see them always constrained, as if they were not safe, and feared the approach of some despot of the police. Not a boy may crack a whip, or sing or shout; the police is immediately at hand to forbid it. This has the effect with us all of taming youth prematurely, and of driving out all originality and all wildness, so that in the end nothing remains but the Philistine.

тАЬYou know that scarcely a day passes in which I am not visited by some travelling foreigner. But if I were to say that I took great pleasure, in the personal appearance, especially of young, learned Germans from a certain north-eastern quarter, I should tell a falsehood.

тАЬShort-sighted, pale, narrow-chested, young without youth; that is a picture of most of them as they appear to me. And if I enter into a conversation with any of them, I immediately observe that the things in which one of us takes pleasure seem to them vain and trivial, that they are entirely absorbed in the Idea, and that only the highest problems of speculation are fitted to interest them. Of sound senses or delight in the sensual, there is no trace; all youthful feeling and all youthful pleasure are driven out of them, and that irrecoverably; for if a man is not young in his twentieth year, how can he be so in his fortieth?тАЭ

Goethe sighed and was silent.


/ and 17 years old / : The translator, John Oxenford, omitted тА║siebzehnj├дhrigтА╣.

http://www.hxa.name/books/ecog/Eckermann-ConversationsOfGoethe.html

[Beachlover]

Back when I was a porter boy I only liked the American tourists for one reason... they tip so generously!

When I (English) lived in Manila I was with friends (Filipino) at the Shangrila in Makati about to have dinner.
My attention was drawn to a very drunken group of men (4 in all) having a scuffle in the bar.
This was so unusual the hotel staff were not mentally equipped for this and really didnt know how to break it up, they just stood by and watched and continued to treat them as white gods.
Its ironic, after living in Manila for a couple of years, the only disturbance I was witnessing was by a bunch of fellow countrymen, sadly they were British.

F@"@"@"ing Brits abroad.

[Surfcrest]

Its ironic, after living in Manila for a couple of years, the only disturbance I was witnessing was by a bunch of fellow countrymen, sadly they were British.

F@"@"@"ing Brits abroad.

Last year I had the misfortune to run into quite a few very drunk young lads from the U.K....behaving quite badly in the streets of Lisbon. This isn't to say all tourists from the U.K. behave like this, but it is certainly a concern in Portugal.
The Mexicans travelling to Havana are horrible, not paying the boys after sex or trying to pay with their used cloths instead.
They are particularly bad here in Vancouver, sometimes I wonder if there are any left in Mexico...we have so many.
I've also just returned from a trip to Hong Kong and I can tell you to get ready for the new, neveau rich, the mainland Chinese.
If you think of puppies fighting with each other to get to their mother's tit (as though there's only one), or not to survive....this is a mainlander in everything they do...not to mention, not washing their hands after they do their business in the washroom, picking their nose / ears and examining their finds afterwards, scratching their balls (in public...so do Russians, Arabs and Mexicans), picking their teeth and wiping it on a restaurant table, spitting into drinking fountains, snorting instead of blowing their nose and chewing it afterwards or spitting it somewhere someone will step in it, clipping their nails in public....and their breath.....aarrrggg.
I'm not sure if all this qualifies as obnoxious, but I spent most of my time in Hong Kong avoiding them.
Wait until they seriously invade Thailand...what we see now (with the tour buses at Mike's) is nothing, yet.
On the flip side of that, the Hong Kong people are beautiful....cheap as hell, but very easy to distinguish from the mainlanders both in their beautiful looks, stylish clothes and most of all their behavior. A full Hong Kong report will follow fo anyone interested.

Undoubtedly the French are the rudest people on earth. They can be obnoxious little bastards to their own let alone people abroad. France is a wonderful country, it's just a shame there's French people there. In terms of other annoying tourist nations I would say that the yanks can be a problem, as can the Brits when it comes to excessive drinking etc. The nicest I would say are possibly the Dutch and Canadian. If you're looking for up to date info on the best Thai nighltife etc go to ---
http://www.sexinthailand.org

[latintopxxx]

Got a theory about france...the french are aliens...original inhabitants were beamed up to the space ship....no way the present inhabitants could be responsible for such a beautiful country/culture/food....

A friend of mine has exactly the same theory about the Chinese - except his runs "they destroyed their own planet by polluting it and now they're destroying ours"!