http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090710/od_afp/lifestyletourismtravelfranceoffbeat Fri Jul 10, 9:43 am ET PARIS (AFP) – Penny-pinching, rude and terrible at foreign languages: French people are the world's worst tourists and Japanese the best, according to a study of the global hotel industry. Carried out last month by TNS Infratest for the Expedia online travel agency, 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 travellers were the least generous or ready to tip, and ranked next-to-last for their overall behaviour and politeness. Pushy French travellers 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 US tourists who were most likely to swallow their pride and order a pizza, baguette or a paella in the local lingo. US 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 behaviour, 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. The study was released on Thursday. Please lock it up if this has been posted. I never thought it would be French tourists.
Its not true. I read this survey last year and the previous few years. If you actually read the polling data, the French are just the worst tourists amongst Europeans. The worst tourist overall is the Chinese tourist. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1820358,00.html?cnn=yes This article shows the real way this ranking is made.
This can't be right. It should be Americans imo. On a per capita basis or just numbers in general, the probability of going to some place in the world and finding a French tourist over an American/Japanese tourist is slim. The few French you can find will probably be from a specific demographic within France. This one group might have attitudes/expectations that are offensive (i.e unwillingness to learn local language) to Hotel staff. So just based on a few numbers, you'll have a skewed view that all French are like this. American/Japanese (and within last decade the Chinese now too) tourist are everywhere since they have the disposable income and a willingness to go abroad. Within Americans you'll find the stereotypical overweight/badly dressed ones as pictured above in addition to the frugal backpacking college student, wealthy Upper East side couple, obnoxious yet attractive blondes from SoCal, etc. Lots of diversity, education level, expectations, personalities.
Good, I hate French people that is very surprising, in my experience, the Chinese are very friendly and generous
I went to Vietnam about 2 years ago. It was crawling with French tourists(they spoke French) in April. Apparently, French workers get much more paid vacation than us. They were guaranteed 31 paid vacation days, but many got 41 days. In the US, the average number of paid vacation days was 12 and 7 paid holidays. Many of those days are used for running errands and staying home for the AC guy or satellite/cable/dsl guy to come over. Of course, the wealthy americans will get travel much more, because of more paid vacation or they have their own business. These guys will be great tippers.
the myth that french people are unfriendly is unfounded and silly. first of all, in my experience, most of the people who propound this myth haven't ever been to france or even haven't met any french people. secondly, for those who have been to france, they usually only visit paris, and yeah, sometimes the parisians can be abrasive. but this applies to residents of any metropolitan town - having been to new york, it's the same. plus, some parisians can be really helpful - for example, in my first night in paris, i was hopelessly lost, and a lady approached me first to ask me if i needed help. if you go to any other part of france, you'll see that this myth is especially untrue. i lived with a host family in the 5th largest town in france, and their reception was extremely warm. they invited me multiple times per week to eat with them, encouraged me to take part in family activities, and trusted me with their son. they would also take me out to other people's houses, and the hosts were also very friendly. granted, i had an an advanced level of french, but i frequently struggled to form an expression, and yet didn't feel disparaged when this happened. i was even invited by other families to their houses, even though i was a dark-skinned, quasi-stranger to them.
I am only 19 but I have been to France numerous times, probably around 5, and I have found the French to be the biggest ass holes I have ever seen. I have been to about 15 countries and the French are the absolute worst. They are usually snobby and extremely unwelcoming. It's as if they don't want you anywhere near their country. Compared to the Chinese, Irish, and Greeks who were unbelievably hospitable, the French were just plain rude most of the time. I hate going to France, but when I go to Europe, I have to fly into France usually.
We have had very similar experiences with the French. Very nice people. We've seen that most people have a poor experience with the French when they refuse to accommodate the French customs. If you give an effort, they are fantastic. If you don't give an effort, they blow you off. I don't understand how most people do not understand that. When foreigners come to the US, we want them to speak English, etc. The French want the same. When in Rome, do as the Romans. It also doesn't help when most Americans come off as arrogant assholes. The family and I were riding a boat tour around Stockholm when we ran into a nice, older couple from California. We hung out for most of the ride talking about everything. Then this jerk off kid saw that we were speaking English and we were obviously from the US. Of course he was the prototypical American that had to be a show off, loud, obnoxious, and new everything about everything. Thankfully after a few stops he left. The old guy leans over and says to me, "that's why world can't stand Americans". Tis very true.
I tend to agree with this. My French is pretty good, so I think that definitely plays a part. Regardless of what country you're visiting, you'll likely have a much better experience if you speak, or at least make an attempt to speak the language. No different than America (probably better, actually. They tend to have more tolerance abroad, maybe because the expectations are low...). I will say that I've been to Spain twice, and on neither occasion did I find the locals particularly pleasant. I'll chalk it up to a small sample size, but I have met others who've had similar experiences.
Everyone says the French are alright if you adapt to their customs. The problem is they want you to adapt to their customs even when they're not in France. One of the factors in this study was willingness to speak the local language. Guess which country came out on top: Americans. The French were among the worst. We lose points for demanding great service (which I can definitely see) and for a lack of "elegance" when we travel (mainly our mode of dress).
Guys, the study wasn't if the French were nice or not when you visited France, it was which tourists were the nicest/rudest based on a poll of hotel workers. I've had good experiences with French people in Paris myself but that doesn't meant that the people polled have had bad experiences with them when they were traveling. I also don't understand why dmc89 thinks Americans should be the worst. Does he/she work in the hotel industry and have experience with American tourists?
Tipping is not customary where we have been in Europe. What I like better than that is the price you see on something is the price you pay. Taxes, etc all factored into the prices that you see on everything.
Have you been to Germany, and how do you feel about zee Germans? From my experience Germans are real bastards
Isn't this kind of racist? All I'm saying is that if a study comes out saying black people were the most violent tourists I'm sure the organization would be taking a lot of heat right now.
