Tourists are a bit like hosting the family at Christmas: at first you’re super happy to welcome everyone before remembering how unbearable they can be, and hoping that they clear the place at faster ! Hoteliers and players in the tourist sector have even got into the habit of drawing up lists of the worst tourists, classified by nationality. Be careful, big shots are approaching!
1. Chinese tourists
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Of the approximately 150 million Chinese who travel abroad each year, some clever ones had to stand out. The problem is that given the sample, even the exceptions take on enormous proportions. Result: Chinese tourists have a bad reputation abroad. The locals would criticize them, among other things, for their lack of embarrassment, whether in queues, the concept of which tends to escape them, or their ability to jostle everyone, including you, when taking the postcard photo. supposed to come proudly enthroned on your screen. Some Chinese tourists have even been caught throwing coins into an airplane jet engine before takeoff… for good luck no doubt!
2. English tourists
Alcohol is to English tourists what after-midnight food is to Mogwais in the film Gremlins : the trigger for a hell of a mess, turning friendly British lads into uncontrollable creatures.
3. German tourists
We owe our German neighbors the invention of the morning race for the deckchairs which consists of getting up at dawn to discreetly put down your towel as a reservation for the whole day, even if it means only enjoying it towards 4:30 p.m. A practice of bastard which does not prevent, on the contrary, the interested parties from complaining as soon as a service does not correspond exactly to that which was presented in their travel catalog. The one-way demand, what.
4. American tourists
The Rican tourist is at home everywhere. A little too much sometimes. The type to be friendly with everyone, too quickly, all the time, like an old uncle who is a little too clingy, or like those French tourists who familiarize themselves with all the locals as soon as they set foot abroad.
5. Israeli tourists
Once their looooooong military service is over (32 months for men, 24 for women), young Israelis are used to traveling for a few months with their friends, the time to decompress. A nice parenthesis except for the hoteliers who have to deal with their slip-ups, as well as for the other tourists who have the misfortune to meet them.
6. Russian tourists
42% of Russians believe that their compatriots are the worst tourists in the world. A good proof of lucidity which does not target the few Russian billionaires moored on the most beautiful crossroads of the planet, but average Russian tourists who are clearly not on vacation so that we come to piss them off with local customs and customs. And we can’t say that their reputation has really improved since the war in Ukraine…
7. Italian tourists
Who said Italians speak with their hands? A beautiful bullshit yes! Just come across a group of Italian tourists to see that they mostly talk with their mouths? Like everyone else, except that the Italians leave the factory with a big problem adjusting the volume. Unless they are actually completely deaf?! Studies are in progress.
8. French tourists
It is well known, the French love above all to complain. A distinctive sign that we find when traveling and which is accompanied most of the time by a nice homegrown stinginess, especially when dropping a tip as a thank you. Because failing to be nice, the French tourist is in tune with his principles: “why leave a tip when you are not satisfied with the service”. Not con the Frenchy!
9. Indian tourists
Their bad reputation mainly concerns their behavior during airplane flights. You visualize the joyful mess of traveling by train or local bus in India, with luggage all over the place, passengers never quite where they should be, safety instructions on demand, smells of food everywhere, all the time… Well transpose all that on board an airliner and you have an idea of what can happen on board some flights carrying Indian tourists. A clash of cultures which notably involves the habit of the latter to eat with their hands, which is rarely expected on airliners…
10. Tourists from capital cities traveling in their own country
What do a tourist from Bangkok on the weekend in Koh Tao, a Parisian in Bordeaux, or a Roman in Lecce have in common? This impression of arriving with a feeling of superiority born of the simple fact of living in the most important (and often the most economically dynamic) city in the country. Enough to be stuck with the beautiful label of a boring and slightly condescending tourist. Regional colonialism in force!