British Expatriate Network

I tried to find the more recent survey by the sun which had british tourists saying they are worhty of their poor reputation abroad but it was similar to this article below but why do british tourist so poorly compared to our global counterparts is it cultural or ignorance of cultural norms abroad or just inherent bad behaviour

Britons have been labelled the world's worst holidaymakers in a survey of tourist boards around the globe.
Research by online travel service Expedia suggests Brits abroad are the least well-regarded by foreigners.



They are the rudest, meanest, worst-behaved, most linguistically incompetent and least adventurous holidaymakers, the study published on Friday claims.


http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2137729.stm

(please note the article is a bit old)

The people that reported this need to look a bit further than a 'club 18-30' holiday

lol

My daughter works as a hostess in a restaurant where the waitstaff ask her not to seat British tourists in their sections because they are notoriously lousy tippers!!

You also forgot drunken and lousy tippers.

/has to say the article sounds about right.

Ive heard the same kind of stories too.....
from friends (of the missus) who work around Niagara Falls and etc...

lol Maybe due to the fact, they tend drink to much, want to shag anything within a hundred yards and then throw up. Where's Moo wink

But if you get away from the canaries and Greek islands,to a more well what can I say, better class resort etc you do find that most are great fun.

I have been to various places around the globe and its always the same where large numbers of one various nationality gather, be them German, French or whatever.

Went to the Maldives some years back. The Island had 200 guests, but they were from over 30 different countries. Was one of my best ever holidays, even though it took less than half hour to walk around the whole island. No TV and No radio lol.

Absolutely.

Of course German tourists are the creme de la creme - everyone loves them in Spain etc. whilst American tourists in Europe are welcomed with open arms wink

lol It all depends where the this questionaire was completed. The greeks hate the Germans and kit all depends where the mass head. So agree with you Pilgrim

I remember a holiday I had in Cyprus where I witnessed 'Brits Abroad' behaviour. This is a fairly accurate description for beach holidays in the Med. Sun, sand and cheap alcohol tend to bring out the worst behaviour in some. Add a few crappy 'English menu' restaurants, ' Linekers' disco bar, souless concrete hotel complexes and a banna boat - no wonder the punters are a bit arsey.

When my wife worked as a waitress in Niagara Falls as a teen she says that British tourists never ever tipped.

Other than that - I've seen a good few nutcases around Europe. Dunno what it is about British tourists that makes them go mental but it does happen too often.

Maybe it's because we don't have much of a tipping culture. Most of our fast food is the McDonalds, chippie or kebab type (the UK is not overflowing with Applebees and TGIF and whatnot) and our bars (pubs) are mostly self service except when they bring out the food they just cooked. It's not an automatic to think about tipping as a Brit. It took me a while to get used to the idea when I lived in Europe.

Maybe Brits just don't buy into the "tipping for the sake of it" culture.

If it's good service then fine but I've yet to see a law anywhere that states "Thou shalt tip".

Thats how I feel Mark

So I went fishing for something on how bad British people are at tipping. Instead I found a website called the Sh itty Tipper Database on which are collected anecdotes by service staff on crap tips (credit card payments only). It'd be amusing (tho very unlikely) if anyone was on it.

http//www.bitterwaitress.com/std/

phew!
I'm not on it. I'm a bit of a 'shitty tipper' though but I'm in the company. If I give more that 15% my wife goes bananas. Trust me the extra $$ aint worth the hassle