Janet CollinsThe World’s Favourite Tourists
July 12th 2009 06:15
The Japanese are the best and the French are the worst when it comes to travelling according to a study of the global hotel industry.
The study, conducted last month and released this week, surveyed more than 4,500 hoteliers in 27 countries on nine criteria including politeness, tipping, loudness and attempts to speak the local language.
The French, it concluded were pushy, least likely to speak the local language and regarded as the least generous and ready to tip. The view of their overall attitude and politeness wasn’t much higher.
It wasn’t all bad for the French however. They came in third on elegance and came very high in the areas of discretion and cleanliness.
The Japanese topped the list of best tourists internationally, and according to the survey outcome are clean, polite, quiet and least likely to complain.
The Brits came in at second place but not everyone likes having them around. According to Europeans, they are messy, bad tippers and very likely to complain.
Even in their own neck of the woods, a fifth of their fellow countrymen voted them the worst and another twenty per cent thought they were miserly and noisy. The rest of the world, it seems, saw them very differently.
Canadians came in at third place and Australians, which is good to hear, did pretty well sharing sixth place with the Dutch.
Other information that came out of the survey was that Americans, Italians and Spanish are seen as the loudest travellers; Americans and the British are the biggest tippers followed by the Germans and the Japanese; and Australians, Canadians and Swiss were also named among the top five least likely to complain.
The Expedia Best Tourist Index has been running annually since 2002 and this is the third consecutive year the Japanese have come out on top. Here’s how the different nationalities fared:
Expedia’s List of Best Tourists 2009:
1 Japanese
2 British
3 Canadians
4 Germans
5 Swiss
6 Dutch
6 Australians
8 Swedish
8 Americans
10 Danes
10 Norwegians
10 Finnish
10 Belgians
14 Austrians
14 New Zealanders
16 Thais
17 Portueguese
17 Czechs
19 Italians
19 Irish
19 Brazilians
22 Polish
22 South Africans
24 Turkish
24 Greeks
26 Spanish
27 French
What sort of a tourist are you?
Sourced: www.expedia.co.uk; AAP/AFP on www.abc.net.au
Image credit: www.telegraph.co.uk
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Comment by Wilson Pon
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Comment by Janet Collins
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I often hear that Aussies are terrible travellers - loud, drunk and obnoxious so their place on this list is really good to hear. Some nationalities that rated rather low on the list surprised me too. The Irish and the Italians are two of them coming in 19th place.
Take care.
Comment by Morgan Bell
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Aussies are drunken louts, we are always stealing bar mats or smuggling hash
Comment by Janet Collins
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You really do have clear opinions on that. Any view on the French?
Comment by Morgan Bell
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i dont know if he was indicative of the whole nation though
Comment by Janet Collins
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What is a "mooch"?
Comment by Morgan Bell
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they befriend people to stay at their house for free until they wear out their welcome and have to mooch off someone else . . . they dont pay their way, they can mooch for food or drinks or transport etc, but usually accommodation
a leach, a scab, a deatbeat, an opportunist, a user, a sponge
mooching is a skill, a professional moocher should never make their mooching apparent, they should appear as a friendly visitor
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