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Good Tourists/bad tourists
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
According to a recent survey the British are the least wanted tourists abroad. Is it really so? As a non-Brit I have seem both the best and the worst of British holiday-makers (especially on places like Majorca). However the British seem to be the best travelled and generally informed, and in more exotic countries they seem to generally adopt and respect the local culture. Other than that, I find American tourists very pleasant people. Just wondered what other posters think of the Brits.
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Actually this guy from Birmingham came over to my friend and I while being town yesterday... Started asking question and so, asking if he could sit on the bench, and before we knew it he was sitting in between us, getting his cheesy friends to take pictures of!
Though we scared him away, when we told him that we are 15 and 16 years old :rolleyes:
Well, my impression of "real-life" brits so far, is that most of them have this boyish charm(only met guys so far
View on american tourists? They are great. Most of them are lovely, positive people, who always seem to be interested.
British tourists in spanish holiday resorts are not likely to be the most culturally aware...British tourists in Japan/China for example, are more likely to be so.
I also like American tourists, they are very polite and always nice...Its unfortunate that some of them think they have to hide the fact that they are American.
*Wishes he had boyish charm*
PS, Aladdin, just what are you?
Don't like the german tourists. They seem so harsh... Luckily, they mostly take over Jutland, and only a small percentage of them come here.
Btw, they japanese and chinese are cool as well. With their 20 cameras each, taking pictures of every single buidling which is over 2 years old, and getting overexcited about EVERYTHING! Bringing in lots of cash to all the stores, and really thankful as well. They are nice...
At uni, we get lots. For odd things. Like the dining room. Well, i suppose it is pretty. But oh well.
Japanese tourists do take photos of everything, especially around uni, because most of it is very old. They also always go around in groups? Has anyone else noticed this? Other tourists can go around on their own, the Japanese usually group together. Maybe it's just me.
American tourists are great. There's a fabled story at college about Americans who were shown round the College (founded in 1571, so it's old), and concluded by enquiring if the ruins were inhabited....
Oh well...
Just kidding...I have never seen a 'engrish' tourist act badly...perhaps a little annoyed at something but that is acceptable.
So...were the ruing inhabited?:D
:eek:
I have to try this out! :eek:
I hope to believe that Diesel was just playing, and this has not become Urban-75, with the word *** to be censored out... :rolleyes:
{edit}It IS! It IS! :eek: We have been censured!!!
My sister lives in Majorca, and the general view by the locals is that the English (those who go for cheap hols in Magaluf anyway) are generally loutish. That is not a serious offence- most others, German, Spanish, etc, also misbehave when on a 'sun' holiday. But what really pisses people off the most is the fact that so many choose to stay in Magaluf and not see the rest of the island. For those who haven't been, Magaluf is an extremely ugly resort, full of unsightly 1960's crap hotels, tacky shops and all-English atmosphere with such offerings as 'fish and chip' shops, pubs called The Bulldog and crap discos. The rest of the island is rather beautiful but many choose to stay in this 'ghetto'. They don't even try the local cuisine. I've always thought that going abroad and not trying the local food is a bit of an insult to your hosts, especially when fish and chips, hot dogs and kebabs are given preference over one of the most varied and delicious cuisines in the world.
We get lots of tourists around here, particularly Japanese, and Spanish. I think the Japs hang around in large groups because they are told beforehand to be wary of pickpockets and other small time crooks.
American tourists-the only time I have encountered these are in America, at Disney Land in particular lol. And I know it is awfully generalised, but the ones I have seen look really quite helpless and very naive. Very few strayed away from the beaten track, where British tourists were wandering all over the place the Americans stayed in designated walking zones. A lot of them also seemed to be lacking in intelligence, when walking around the Swiss family Robinson tree, which to anyone with an IQ of more than 3 is obviously fake, I heard one spirited American man ask his wife "Gee honey, is this the real tree from all those books?" :rolleyes:
Germans-I think we can all agree that wherever they go they try and take over. Sun loungers, need I say more? And if anyone thinks this doesn't actually happen, when I was in Spain there was a notice in German and then with smaller English writing underneath informing huests not to put their towels in the sun beds before 9:30AM. We awoke one morning to see all the GErmans in the hotel waiting by the sun loungers, towels in hand ready to pounce. One plucky young woman decided to ignore the rules and put her towel there anyway. As soon as she disappeared an attendant came out, picked the towel up and chucked it in the pool
Oh! I've just realised you were talking about the items in the supermarket!!
That's my College you're talking about.. play nice!
Is it really censored? I can't believe that...
*has to try for himself*
"guns"
Well?
Oh my such potty language!:D
Whowhere, are you trying to imply that Americans are dain bamaged?:eek:
I thought it was good fun!
lol, of course not. However in the words of Bill bryson (an American author) "Americans abroad are a helpless lot"
What?
Have you no appreciation for a warped sense of humor? After all of the posts claiming that Americans are dullards with no detectable wit?
It really does depend on where you go...louts go to Shagaluf, Ibiza, Ayia Napa, regardless of nationality, wheres families go to places like Brittany, the Dordogne, and the rich go to the south of France.
Mind, I think the French are the worst tourists mind...the Parisiens are just awful, awful, people.
Bryson was just projecting.
Verstehen Sie?
Ich kan Sie nicht verstehen.
I'se jist a ignernt redneck 'Merican, 'member?
I am often embarrassed by the behaviour of my countrymen abroad. From the lager willing clubbers in Ayia Napa and Ibiza to the family on the Costa Del Sol. The only people who give us any credit are backpackers.
We seem to have this attitude that everyone should speak English, that foreign food is poison and that abusing the locals (esp reminding them "who won the bloody war anyway). ON the whole we are uncouth and show scant respect for the counties we visit.
Naturally there are exceptions to this, but do we really have any excuse for our behaviour?
what do you think about italian tourist?
The behaviour you describe is the exception, not the rule.
I went to france on holiday every year for over a decade with my parents and never did i see an english family talking in english to the french without at least attempting to speak french first.
As i said, go out of the tourist crapholes and you will see an entirely different type of english tourist, the type that makes up the majority. You get louts everywhere, it appears there are more brits because we take more holidays abroad than anyone else in europe.
'Who wont the war'? Think you might be stereotyping a little there mate. How many brits take their holidays in germany? Thats just a cliche.
but we are very gently with tourist... instead of out of italy we are in difficult cause people of place don't help so much us if we don't know their language..
i have been in france, holland, spain, austria... and only in spain it's like here also because is very similar language...
all in the world tell that the most of italian don't speak other language... but the most in the world don't speak italian...mah!?!?!?!?!
but we are very gently with tourist... instead of out of italy we are in difficult cause people of place don't help so much us if we don't know their language..
i have been in france, holland, spain, austria... and only in spain it's like here also because is very similar language...
some of my friends have been in England.. and they tell me that
English peopledon't help so much tourist that not speak english...
all in the world tell that the most of italian don't speak other language... but the most in the world don't speak italian...mah!?!?!?!?!
Then when we got there hardly anyone spoke Italian at all, and suddenly all the people who'd been making fun of me were running to ask me to buy them ice-creams and stamps and things. I felt very smug.
The problem with British tourists is that a lot don't want to go on holiday for the cultural experience, they want to lie around in the sun all day and drink all night. If Britain had nice weather and alcohol was cheaper, they could do that at home.
Some people think that tourism (by which I mean the tacky, cliche kind) is like colonialism, in that the one nation takes over an area of another and the locals have to 'serve' them and in a way depend on them. This may be going a bit far, but it's an interesting angle.
Which goes a long way to explain why people from countries like Australia and the USA rarely venture past their own borders. When you are given a country that has every possible weather system imaginable, including hot weather, they aren't going to leave.
I read somewhere that the vast majority of Americans don't own a passport and have never left the country. And why should they....they have the nice weather, cheap alcohol e.t.c. already, so why go abroad?
If Britain had nice weather, then yes I would stay at home, why spend money going to the sun when it is in your bac garden???
As for the problems of speaking English/foreign language, 4 billion people worldwide have English as a first or second language. It is THE international form of communication. A lot of people in the UK, America, Australia, Canada know this and come to the conclusion that if everyone speaks English anyway then why bother trying? IF 4 billion people worldwide spoke French, do you think the French themselves would bother to learn English when they visited us? Don't be daft, of course they wouldn't.
I have a real problem with that little statistic, because of the number of customers who come into my shop who cannot converse in English. Spanish, Vietnamese dialects, Korean, etc. :rolleyes:
4 billion people being able to speak English, still leaves 2 billion people who can't. And those 4 billion aren't going to all be clumped up in the same place.
And I bet as soon as those people who claim to be unable to speak English, need something like a lawyer, a doctor or something they suddenly manage to pick it up. There's a difference between unable and unwilling, which is what I think your customers may be.