The World’s Worst Tourists
Posted on 8 March 2012 by Tendys W.L. in Other
Americans have ranked their own countrymen as the world’s worst tourists. Canadians and Australians also ranked Americans as the worst tourists, in a recent survey carried out by Living Social and Mandala Research.
The Chinese took second place in the survey, ahead of the French.
However, the Irish had a different opinion. They said the British were the worst tourists, while Brits pointed the finger at Germans as being the worst.
Indians and Greek were high on some people’s ‘worst list’.
The Australians were considered the best tourists.
It is thought that Americans come out at the top of the worst list, because they have the least practice. Fox News reported that on average, Americans take only 16 days of vacation each year. Ten of those days are spent overseas, while the remaining four are spent in America.
Canadians vacation for an average of 21 days, while the British are reported to take around 23 days. Australians take a whopping 27 days, while the Irish top the list with 28 days annual holidays.
In spite of the shorter vacation time, 78% of Americans have visited at least one foreign country, while 61% have visited multiple countries. Only 36% have visited four or more foreign nations.19% of Americans got hopelessly lost while in a foreign country, 21% lost their luggage, 7% overindulged in drink and 3% got arrested.
Only 37% of Americans hold a passport, while only 1.5% of Chinese hold a passport.
Four in 10 travellers admitted to having stolen something from a hotel during a visit. The most common items pilfered were towels, bathrobes, batteries, pillows, remote controls, sheets, bibles, coat hangers and umbrellas.
Perhaps all accommodation providers should do as some hotels in China have done. They have a complete inventory of the room, with all items on sale, including the carpets. Guests are made to wait in the lobby at check out, while a staff member returns to the room and double checks the inventory. This certainly is a great deterrent to theft, but it means guests wait for some time before the staff member gets back to the reception with a report, so if you are visiting China, make sure you allow plenty of time to ‘check out’.
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