20-07-2002 20:56									#1
	Britons Voted World’s Worst Tourists Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

quote: 18/7/2002 BRITONS VOTED WORLD’S WORST TOURISTS - AND IT GETS WORSE – THE GERMANS ARE THE BEST - The summer holiday exodus reaches its peak this weekend – schools break up and the World Cup is no longer a reason to stay glued to the TV. But as hundreds of thousands of British holidaymakers head for the sun, chances are their hosts will be counting the days until they return. Research published today by Expedia.co.uk, the UK’s leading online travel service, shows that around the world the Germans are the most welcome foreign visitors and Brits are the least, scoring worst in all but one of five key criteria: their behaviour; politeness; willingness to learn the lingo; enthusiasm to try the local delicacies; and how much money they put into the local economy. Expedia.co.uk asked tourist offices in 17 of the most popular national and international holiday destinations, from the Cote d’Azur to Cyprus, Paris to Prague, San Francisco to Sydney, to rank different nationalities of travellers. And it’s the Germans, who spend an incredible 800 million nights abroad every year, who rate highest, with Brits propping up the table of the 24 most liked and disliked nationalities. The research found: • Overall, Germans have been voted the world’s best tourists, followed by Americans and Japanese. Brits scored worst of any country mentioned, followed by Israelis and Irish. • Germans are the best behaved, beating the respectful Japanese and the Spanish. The worst behaviour can be expected from the British, Irish and Danes. • ‘Have a nice day’ Americans are the most polite, out-charming Germans and Japanese. Britons are judged to be the rudest, followed by Russians and the usually placid Canadians. • Germans rank highest for attempting to speak the local language, followed by the French and rather surprisingly, Americans. The British make the least effort, preferring to simply talk louder in English. Russians and the Spanish are similarly mono-lingual. • Italians are most likely to try the local delicacies, followed by the Spanish and Germans. Brits, Indians and fast-food loving Americans are the least gastronomically adventurous. • Americans have the local restaurateurs, taxi drivers and souvenir shop owners ringing their hands as they spend and tip the most. The Japanese and Russians have the next deepest pockets. Germans are deemed to be the meanest, more so than Brits and New Zealanders. Commenting on the findings, Dermot Halpin, managing director of Expedia.co.uk, said: ‘British holidaymakers are some of the most widely travelled in the world, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re good at it. A little effort goes a long way in a foreign country, and as much as it pains me to say it, perhaps the Germans actually deserve to get the best sunbeds.’ Rank The World’s Best Tourists Points 1 Germans +41 2 Americans +32 3 Japanese +24 4 Italians +10 5 French +5 5= Norwegians +5 5= Swedish +5 8 Spanish +4 8= Canadians +4 10 Chinese 3 10= Thais 3 10= Dutch 3 13 Brazilians -1 13= Danes -1 13= Polish -1 16 Russians -2 17 Argentineans -3 17= New Zealanders -3 17= Czechs -3 17= Finnish -3 21 Indians -4 22 Irish -6 22= Israelis -6 24 British -44 Research was conducted with tourist offices in the following places: Bangkok; Cote d’Azur; Cyprus; Dublin; Edinburgh; Ibiza; London; Majorca; Marbella; Orlando; New York; Paris; Prague; Rome; San Francisco; Sydney; and Tenerife. Top and bottom ranking countries in each category were given positive and negative scores respectively.

http://www.expedia.co.uk/daily/pres...t%20Tourist.doc

They beat us.

	20-07-2002 21:52									#2
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We lost by -38 points as well. Thats pretty bad!

	20-07-2002 21:56									#3
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I blame it on the Sun-reading masses.

	20-07-2002 21:57									#4
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We're #2! We're #2!

	20-07-2002 22:04									#5
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Actually there is an 85 point difference between the top and bottom scores. What amazes me is how the Krauts ran away with first place. They were a full 20% ahead of second place.

	20-07-2002 22:09									#6
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I think it is because second place (Americans) are last in one of the rating areas

so of course Germany is going to be way ahead

Jon Miller

	20-07-2002 22:10									#7
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Germany was last in one of the ratings too, Jon... a category where Americans were #1.

	20-07-2002 22:18									#8
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It looks biased for bigger (more memorable) populations.

That explains the extreme scores for Brits, Japanese, Americans, Germans. I can easily believe the positions tho, just not the gaps.

	20-07-2002 22:47									#9
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Seems a bit strange. I would have thought that the voting would be heavily biased by tipping. But as acknowledged in the article, the Germans are horrendous tippers (I know because I am maried to one) while the Brits at probably only second to the Americans in tipping.

	20-07-2002 22:49									#10
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Wow. We're one of the world's plitist groups of tourists?

Maybe if the rest of you weren't so damn cheap...

	20-07-2002 22:54									#11
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In my experience, pretty much all europeans are disliked as tourists in America since they give horrible tips
Japanese make really strange tourists, they travel in packs, spend long periods of time photographing tree stumps, and stalked out of our restaurant when they learned that our sushi chef wasn't Japanese

	20-07-2002 22:57									#12
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Postia ante deletia!

	20-07-2002 22:58									#13
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We're 2nd last! I thought everyone loved the Irish!

	20-07-2002 23:27									#14
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yep. Our tourists are shameful .

	21-07-2002 00:04									#15
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There's a valid reason. From 10,000 BC to 1066AD every bastard with a pointy stick invaded us. They bred with each other (presumably after a struggle) and in turn bred with other invaders, creating a sort of inbred rampaging uber-barbarian.

Them, after 1066, we decided "Sod this for a game of soldiers. It's our turn.", and spent the next 1000 years happily terrorising the rest of the planet.

The British genetic make-up is predominantly Celt, Saxon and Viking. That's a really volatile mix.

	21-07-2002 00:13									#16
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So Ron, your saying its not our fault were horrible, its our descendants. Well im ok with that. As long as we dont blame ourselves for being just plain horrid when we go abroad!

	21-07-2002 00:22									#17
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No. I'm saying it's entirely our fault and that we should be proud of it. We're relentlessly nice to tourists when they show up here, so we're entitled to drink too much, vomit copiously and attempt to share our lukewarm plebspunk with any takers.

	21-07-2002 01:48									#18
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quote: Originally posted by Ron Jeremy We're relentlessly nice to tourists when they show up here

Um...er...we are?

	21-07-2002 03:05									#19
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Japanese tourists are, on the whole, incredibly irritating. They were an absolute nightmare when I was in Switzerland a couple of years back... travelling in packs and block pre-booking everything so that anyone else that wanted to do something had to wait for ****ing ages.

	21-07-2002 03:08									#20
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Germans leave out towels, Brits leave out beer cans.

	21-07-2002 03:19									#21
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Finns take beer (and other) glasses. From bars.

	21-07-2002 12:30									#22
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A couple of years ago, the British Council did a worldwide survey to determine what the perceptions of Brits were around the globe. The number 1 preception? "They're a bunch of drunks." Not exactly popular tourist fodder.

(Unless, of course, you're a horny local Cypriot/Spaniard/Greek/Turk. Then that drunkenness has certain, um, advantages )

	21-07-2002 18:25									#23
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I must say that when I was on the ferry to and from Amsterdam last year I was incredibly embarrassed by the conduct of the British tourists on the boat and hated to think that I would be lumped in with them. They were drunken, disorderly, making lots of noise and rude to people who asked them to quieten down in their drunken packs. I can understand the result, they were hideously embarrassing.

And yes, other tourists. I remember the hordes in Oxford. They always got in the f**king way, their groups seeming to form picket lines at every point in the city where people needed to pass. In the end you almost felt like just letting fists fly to get through them

	21-07-2002 18:30									#24
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you're not alone. My countrymen aren't much better . loud, disrepectful , ignorant.

	21-07-2002 18:31									#25
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This is the criteria

quote: politeness; willingness to learn the lingo; enthusiasm to try the local delicacies; and how much money they put into the local economy

Another load of crap, from my experience living in Europe and North America the only way that list makes sense is by the last factor, MONEY.

	21-07-2002 18:34									#26
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Dalgetti: ...+telling everyone they're the chosen people, wherever they go

	21-07-2002 18:42									#27
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no they don't. sounds more like you guys .

	21-07-2002 19:09									#28
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Uhmmm
Interesting enough we are 4th, I thought Italians would have outperformed British in rudeness....

Better for us

Saluti

	21-07-2002 19:55									#29
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quote: • Germans rank highest for attempting to speak the local language, ...

This is a joke, right?

	21-07-2002 20:39									#30
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I'm going to cast my vote for Japanese girls, age 16-35. I went to the Grand Canyon last year... HOLY SH!T, I have never seen a more annoying brand of human being. Do not go with them to anything remotely comedic. Their incescent laughing is enough to make you want to jump into the Canyon.