British tourists worst-behaved in Europe - Expedia poll

A new poll by Expedia reveals that British tourists are considered the worst-behaved tourists in Europe.

The Expedia Best Tourist Index, which has run since 2002, canvasses the opinions of more than 4,500 hoteliers around the world. Hoteliers were asked to rank different nationalities on a number of aspects of their behaviour - from tipping to friendliness and efforts to speak the local language.

The Japanese score most highly for being the quietest and most polite and the cleanest and least likely to complain.

Although the Europeans have a poor opinion of British tourists, we fared much better in the worldwide Best Tourist rankings. Eighteen per cent of hoteliers surveyed praised the British for politeness. We were ranked second in the best-behaved category and most generous nationality.

Perhaps not surprisingly, free-spending and used-to-tipping American tourists were in first place.

The stereotype of the British holidaymaker clad in sandals, socks and a knotted handkerchief seems to be a thing of the past. British tourists were voted second most stylish overall. The Italians came first in this category, with the elegant French placing third.

French tourists were named the world's worst European tourists. They were ranked the most frugal, the meanest tippers, and the rudest tourists in Europe. Ten per cent of hoteliers cited them as most impolite.

The full results of the poll is available here (press.expedia.co.uk).

© Cheapflights Ltd

Comments

[KQ]

Your headline is very misleading. If you read the full article the UK really doesn't do too badly overall. Are you being part of the "self-bashing" brigade?

How about a bit of praise instead, pulling out the positive bits? That would surely help improve the public perceptions as well as encouraging our "nearby" neighbours to see the better bits too!?

Glad we didn't just read the short article which would have reinforced our somewhat sceptical attitude towards Brits abroad!