rwoman

Ah, got to love stereotypes!

Americans are world's worst tourists, says new survey

Wingman32

Yea....a survey that contains predominantly Americans and then only other English speaking countries. Super representative. :P

theFallen

clearly everyone forgot about the french...

Sarcee

Ask a tour guide anywhere,and they all say the French are the worst.

kochleffel

The last time I was in London, it seemed to be full of French people. If I had wanted to be with the French, I would have gone to France! (There may not really have been that many, but they were conspicuous.)

But I would have said that Germans were the worst tourists. They're noticeable even in Austria.

alanR

Russians - OMG.

djm3

"According to the press release from SocialLiving, 78 percent of Americans have visited at least one foreign country, 61 percent have visited multiple countries, and 36 percent have traveled to four or more foreign destinations"

These statistics are utterly impossible, unless they are counting US states as other countries!! More than 1/3 have visited four or more foreign destinations?

slawecki

61% have been to a furn country...21% lost luggage. only fox news. they don't even know how to run a simple survey. i don't think you get to 61% if you count orlando as forn.

Fredd

That's because Americans have been brainwashed for years - decades - by having it proclaimed as fact that they are the world's worst tourists.

No question that Canadians at least are pleased to back up that opinion and excited to plaster themselves with maple leaves to make sure the world knows they are not Americans. A tour guide recently told me he's had Canadians get angry with him for wrongly assuming they were Americans.

As a cross-section of citizens of other countries travel abroad, more similar to the American demographics of earlier years, we'll find there are lots of new contenders for the "world's worst tourists nationality" title.

janetdoe

The actual stats in the article say 78% of Americans have been to a foreign country. It doesn't sound too implausible to me that 4 in 5 Americans have been to a foreign country. Texas and California (two very high population states) share borders with Mexico. New York shares a border with Canada. Florida is a short cheap hop to tons of Caribbean islands. That's 32% of the US population right there that have fairly trivial access to other countries. <shrug>

Then consider that SunCountry airlines opens up tons of cheap flights to the Caribbean and Mexico for midwesterners... I think you are underestimating the ease of cheap travel to beach/cruise destinations in North America.

As far as 4 foreign destinations... I think an average 7-day cruise would more than cover that number.

rwoman

I'm assuming, like you, they were there (as tourists) to see London...happens all the time!

chollie

Depends on how you define 'visit'.

I've met folks who collect passport stamps and consider it a 'visit' if they do a same-day airport turn and exit/re-enter customs just to get the passport stamp.

I've met folks who consider a day-trip across the Mexican or Canadian border a 'visit' (and so does CBP, for that matter).

Cruise ship passengers also drive the numbers up. I don't really consider a day trip from a cruise ship much of a 'visit', but many others do.

Sweet Willie

why do you guys feel the French are the worst tourists?

As an American who has been abroad a bit, I can see Americans being voted worst as it seems to me that many want a US travel experience when visiting a different country, rather than accepting the culture/tradition/food of where they are traveling to. Where's McDonald's? Where's Mickey Mouse? How come these locals don't speak English? etc etc

Fredd

Moi, je ne sais pas pourquoi.

I do think any time there are enough tourists of a particular nationality or group the locals tend to make generalizations, whether fair or unfair.

We live near the Canadian border and US residents sometimes even write letters to the local papers or comment on blogs about the terrible driving and the nuisance of the Canadians.

For that matter, I've heard residents of Colorado complain about the Texans, and people in various states disparage "California drivers."

In contrast, has anybody heard wide-scale complaints about the behavior of Liechtensteiner tourists? No, I didn't think so.

chollie

+1

I've encountered the good, the bad and the ugly from every nationality, but overall, the Americans seem more prone to trying to dominate everything - they want 'American' food (usually McD's, pizza and American-style Mexican), English translations on menus, good local command of the English language, and to export their views on tipping.

IME, Americans are much more likely to judge ("these brats aren't as good (in Germany) as the hotdogs we get back home because there's no onions", "I'm going to tip the way we do in America because we're not cheap in America") instead of observing differences ("wow - fresh tomatoes and cucumbers on the breakfast buffet", "what do locals consider a generous tip?").

And they judge LOUDLY, as though everyone else is stupid for not speaking American.