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Brits voted second worst tourists in Expedia league
The reputation of Brits abroad is as bad as it was five years ago, according to Expedia’s 2007 Best Tourist League.
The league, based on the views of 15,000 European hoteliers, put Brits in the top five worst nationalities because of their noisy and untidy holiday habits, bad behaviour and miserly tipping.
But it was an improvement on 2002, when hoteliers named Brits as the worst tourists overall.
This time Brits came second to the French, who were criticised for their unwillingness to speak the local language, lack of generosity and impoliteness.
“We decided to compile another Best Tourist League to reassess the reputation of British tourists – obviously with the hope that we would have risen up the ranks since 2002,” says Caroline Cartellieri, managing director of Expedia.co.uk.
“However, it’s disappointing to learn that our position in the world rankings hasn’t really changed, with foreign hoteliers still perceiving Brits as noisy, untidy and badly dressed.
“Although it’s good to see Brits perceived as generous in their spending habits, now we just need to work on ditching those ‘socks and sandals’.”
Brits were voted the second worst dressed tourists, second only to the Americans. Unsurprisingly, tourists from Italy, France and Spain lead the way in the holiday-style stakes.
Good old British manners seem to have fallen by the wayside with British hoteliers rating their countrymen the third most impolite nationality.
Brits have also shaken off their traditional reserve to become one of the top three biggest holiday complainers.
Despite their faults, hoteliers do look favourably upon British spending habits, voting them the third biggest holiday spenders after the Americans and Russians.
But Brits are not so generous when it comes to tipping, with even British hoteliers voting British tourists as the meanest tippers.
The harshest criticism of Brits came from British hoteliers, who voted them the worst behaved of all nationalities, preferring even the Germans.
According to hoteliers, the best tourists in the world are the polite and tidy Japanese, who secured 35% more votes than the Americans who came in second.
New to this year’s list were the Swiss who came in third and were commended for being quiet and considerate.
By Bev Fearis
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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