As much as we humans are all part of a “global community” more than ever, there are still many differences between us. Where you’re raised usually plays a big role in how you’re raised and, therefore, how you present yourself in public since the social norms of different areas of the world (or even of different parts of the same country) can vary greatly.
Fortunately, more and more people around the world are able to travel nowadays (the graph in that link is only through 2019, but I promise it’s fascinating! I wish they’d redo it through today!). With so many differences between us, on top of the stereotypes that arise from those differences (loud, obnoxious, demanding American, anyone? [I can say that; I’m from the U.S.]), there’s bound to be some finger-pointing in terms of who the worst behaved tourists are.
These articles and surveys have posted who their respondents said were the countries of the worst tourists in the world. Obviously, there are vast differences in the methods they used to gather this information, and I could only review surveys that were printed in English, but it still gives a bird’s eye view of what people are thinking. I included the link to each online publication so you can review the reasoning behind the responses.
- Business Insider (U.S. publication, 2013) – (10 worst) Brazil, Italy, France, India, Germany, Australia, China, Russia, United Kingdom, United States
- Escape (Australia, 2021) – United Kingdom, China, Russia, Australia, Germany, United States, Italy.
- Forbes (U.S., 2012) – (10 worst) France, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, “Other,” China, United States, Spain, Italy, Poland
- MarketWatch (U.S., 2016) – United States, China, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada
- South China Morning Post (Hong Kong, 2017) – (6 worst) China, United Kingdom, Germany, United States, Israel, Russia
- Travel Weekly (U.K., 2008) – United Kingdom, India, France, Russia, Mexico
- Yahoo! (U.S., 2014) – (5 worst) Russia, China, Germany, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia
- Yougov (international research data and analytics group headquartered in London, 2019) – (10 worst) Great Britain, Norway, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, China, Saudi Arabia, United States, Kuwait
Not surprisingly, as you can see, it all depends on who you ask. However, using this admittedly small sampling, you can see that some countries come up time and time again for having citizens who are among the world’s worst tourists.
Why does this happen?
That’s a simple one. Lack of cultural sensitivity. So many more of us can travel, but how many look to see what the cultural norms are of whatever country/ies they’re visiting and then actively take part in those behaviors while they’re visiting?
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do” goes a long way to being considered a polite guest of that country. Knowing your host country’s social and cultural norms for queuing, tipping, what to wear, blowing your nose in public, touching people of the opposite sex (even if you’re married), how loud to speak (or not), appropriate behavior for sacred places, even gender roles (however we feel about equality means nothing in a country where men are still #1), etc. – the people who live there are watching you, and if you don’t adapt to their ways while you’re visiting, you’re going to be marked off as an “Ugly {Name Of Your Country}” and might be included in the next survey 😉
An interesting observation
You may have noticed that save for that survey from Escape in 2021, all of the reports are from before the pandemic. Since the pandemic, it appears that publications are focusing less on “which countries produce the worst tourists” than “which cities are plagued by over-tourism ” (e.g., Venice, Amsterdam, Barcelona, etc.).
There were also several articles about the “worst behaved tourists” (like the ones who drove a car across a medieval bridge, carved their names into a UNESCO World Heritage site, etc.) of 2022, 2023, etc., but those focused on individuals rather than “THIS COUNTRY or THAT PLACE has the worst tourists.”
I don’t know why there’s been such a change – maybe the word is getting out to focus on “fixing” tourism, rather than pointing fingers at large groups? Again, I’m not sure. But it’s one thing I noticed as I gathered the information for this piece.
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