Pushy French are world's worst tourists; Japanese are top: study

Friday 10th July, 07:29 AM JST

PARIS —

Penny-pinching, rude and terrible at foreign languages: French people are the world’s worst tourists according to a study of the global hotel industry released on Thursday.

Carried out last month by TNS Infratest, the study asked 40,000 hotels worldwide to rank tourists from 27 countries based on nine criteria, from their politeness to their willingness to tip.

Clean and tidy, polite, quiet and uncomplaining, Japanese tourists came top of the crop for the third year running.

At the other end of the spectrum, French holidaymakers and business travelers were the least generous or ready to tip, and ranked next-to-last for their overall behavior and politeness.

Pushy French travelers made amends on elegance—classed third—as well as for their discretion and cleanliness.

But the French were the least ready to try a new language, unlike U.S. tourists who were most likely to swallow their pride and order a pizza, baguette or a paella in the local lingo.

U.S. tourists also got top marks for generosity—as the biggest spenders and tippers—but fell short on other counts as the least tidy, the loudest, the worst complainers, and the most badly dressed.

Despite cliches about beer-guzzling hordes descending on Mediterranean resorts each summer, Britons came a surprise second for their overall behavior, politeness, quietness and even elegance—second for dress sense only to the Italians.

But the model Japanese were followed by Canadians as the least likely to whinge when a trip goes wrong.

France’s rivals for the “worst tourist” tag, Spaniards and Greeks came near the bottom of the pack in almost every category.

Wire reports

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Latest 15 of 96 Total Comments Show All

notimpressed at 10:19 AM JST - 15th July

well in that case Canada is hardly homogeneous
chotto at 12:34 PM JST - 15th July

Americans most willing to speak a foreign language? What planet are they on? If "most willing to speak a foreign language" means "most willing to shout louder and louder, and slower and slower and complain and demand everything be like it is in the US" then they're spot on I guess.

As for MakusuSun's comment about "standards being lower in Europe", get a clue.
torsoaho at 04:11 PM JST - 15th July

'U.S. tourists also got top marks for generosity—as the biggest spenders and tippers'

No surprise ! Americans have led the world in charitable donations and charity events for dozens of years.

'but fell short on other counts as the least tidy' -Hey we're on vacation ! Laeve the laundry and tableware for the staff to take care of !

'the worst complainers'

Easy to explain, life in America is first rate. The standard of living is top notch, the quality and quantity of food outstanding, and prices for consumer goods are dirt cheap. One really wonders why Americans would bother to travel outside their own borders. When Americans experience inferior conditions they feel free to tell you so. My advice, instead of whinning about it, listen up and make the necessary changes... after all the customer is god !

and the most badly dressed.
torsoaho at 04:17 PM JST - 15th July

Chotto, Chotto !!!

'Americans most willing to speak a foreign language? What planet are they on?'

No, what planet are you on ? One that obviously doesn't recognize that the USA is made up of immigrants with over 50 million current American residents being born in another country... yeh, thats right, they probably speak a different language other than English at home. My oh my where do you all come from ?
ersby at 09:11 PM JST - 15th July

Well, this is confusing. Last night I heard a radio talk-in about another survey that put us Brits at the bottom of the pile.
JoeBigs at 09:18 PM JST - 15th July

U.S. tourists also got top marks for generosity—as the biggest spenders and tippers—but fell short on other counts as the least tidy, the loudest, the worst complainers, and the most badly dressed.

So true, I enjoy watching my fellow Americans and having a good laugh. I actually heard one complaining that the Japanese do not speak "American". The guy was so mad and so bloody amusing......LOL
OhioDonna at 12:20 AM JST - 16th July

There are quite a fews surveys that would disagree with this one. There are some that acutally rank the Japanese as the worst not because they are impolite but because of the obessessive photo taking. The Japanese tourits have been reported to be quite pushy when it comes to getting a good photo. I was also with a tour group once when the guide announced several times that photos would not be allowed and that cameras should be put away. Guess which group sneaked a few photos? However I would not judge other Japanese tourists by the actions of this one group. We were on a boat and I was afraid to take pictures because we were touring a naval base. I bought postcards. By the way, I do not put much faith in surveys.
jeffrey at 05:17 AM JST - 16th July

DenDon at 09:53 AM JST - 10th July TNS Infratest. a German company

LOL. Not having traveled to Europe but knowing people who have, they pretty much concur that the Germans are worse than Americans. The Japanese really aren't far behind precisely because too many insist on traveling in large groups.
jeffrey at 05:24 AM JST - 16th July

griff at 07:16 PM JST - 12th July . . . , but by using a translation of "gaijin" does go to expose the rather dichotomous way in which many japanese see the world...

Yep. I caught a friend out with this who was staying with us in the States. I gave her no end or grief for referring to Americans as gaijin.

I know nothing about Chinese culture, but knowing how they think of themselves and their culture historically, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't view the world in more-or-less the same way.
jeffrey at 05:33 AM JST - 16th July

torsoaho at 04:17 PM JST - 15th July No, what planet are you on ? One that obviously doesn't recognize that the USA is made up of immigrants with over 50 million current American residents being born in another country... yeh, thats right, they probably speak a different language other than English at home.

That's the problem with being a "American" - it's a political as well as cultural designation.

Of the 50 million immigrant "Americans" you speak of, the majority are Spanish speakers from Mexico and Central American. How "American-ized" they are, even after two generations, is open to debate. Many more of your 50 million are economic and political exiles. It can be argued that a good portion of these people (particularly the Chinese, S Korean, SE Asians, S Asians, and Africans) would probably return home tomorrow if the political and/or economic situations changed. Categorizing all these people as "Americans" to win an argument on the Internet(s) about foreign language proficiency in the U.S. is disingenuous at best.

Moderator: Back on topic please.
sfjp330 at 05:39 AM JST - 16th July

For a business, long as they spend money and you are respectful and don't break the law, it really doesn't matter.
fightfan2008 at 08:28 AM JST - 16th July

I think Japanese tourist tend to be somewhat low maintenance/easy going. I haven't had contact with many French tourists, but from my experience a lot of them have been pretty friendly while others can seem 'standoff-ish.' But all in all they actually don't seem that bad IMO.
notimpressed at 01:31 PM JST - 16th July

ALL tourists are annoying.
lordomni at 01:43 PM JST - 16th July

I'm not surprised about the language bit for Americans. Nothing to do with immigrants, people from the US are terrible with foreign languages because most never need to deal with it. However, I have never known someone to travel who didn't buy phrase books and do a little with it. I'd say Americans are more willing to try (and often fail miserably) at foreign languages, while many other countries like Japan have schooling in them from early age.

But we do really enjoy complaining, lol.

I'm not so surprised about the result for French, my experiences have generally been pretty unpleasant dealing with French travelers. Many I've met understood and spoke English, but did so tersely and disdainfully.

I've also been told that Japanese are a bit troublesome as tourists, or at least incredibly unfriendly as they stay in their group and are just a nightmare if separated from the guide. Thats from my friends in the US who worked in hotels. I can imagine it, I suppose.
griff at 09:03 PM JST - 16th July

I know nothing about Chinese culture, but knowing how they think of themselves and their culture historically, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't view the world in more-or-less the same way.

the chinese believe that they are in fact descended from homo-erectus, not homo-sapiens like the rest of us. look it up