French tourists topped the list when it comes to behaving badly on vacation. The French are now considered the most obnoxious tourists from European nations, according to a recent international survey of employees in 4,000 hotels in Germany, the U.K., Italy, France, Canada and the U.S. for the French travel website Expedia.fr. (source)
Apparently the poll showed French Tourists are stingy tippers, don't bother to try to speak the local languages and can be quite critical and rude. Considering that the average French employee gets about 37 vacation days year, you'd think that -and all of the wine with breakfast - would mellow them out some. I guess not.
I'm proud of my fellow Americans who scored well on the survey for trying to communicate using the local lingo, spending big and being generous tippers while abroad. Kudos to us! However, like the French, we didn't do so well in the attitude department. Our diva demands for premium customer service ranked us among "the loudest, most inclined to complain, and among the least polite" when things aren't going our way on vacation.
So when I go overseas, butcher the language, spend too much money on cheap souvenirs, over tip the pool boy and rant about bad customer service, I am just being a proud American! I wonder where overindulging in the local libations fits in.
