World's Worst Tourists? According To LivingSocial.com ........

[OldChinaHam]

Anyone who reads TV Forum for a while knows it is fun for readers and contributors here to speculate on this question, "who are the worlds worst tourists".

Some say The Americans. I personally do agree.

Americans are best at everything,

Including being best at being the worst.

And some say The Chinese are the worst. I definitely do not agree.

But LivingSocial did a poll, which has been widely reported,

In places as reputable as the South China Morning Post.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1300042/chinese-passengers-anger-airline-staff-refusing-hand-over-flight

And you can find the results of the LivingSocial poll on the link here....

https://corporate.livingsocial.com/inthenews/articles/174

World’s Worst Tourists
Americans say the country with the worst tourists is:

United States 20% China 15% France 14%

But my question is what do the well traveled readers and members of this august Forum really think,

Not in a poll,

But what if any comments might we have regarding this question.

Sometimes when I am not traveling, I do like to read about the crazy things travelers do,

When they are traveling.

It makes me feel so close to nature,

And the animal world.

Do you have any stories about strange travelers that you have seen personally up close in the wild?

[Suradit69]

Anyone who reads TV Forum for a while knows it is fun for readers and contributors here to speculate on this question,

Sometimes the fun is just overwhelming.

Why do we need to blather on and on about who's worst at anything? There are enough negative comments here on different nationalities and races without the "fun" of targeting even more.

[OldChinaHam]

Anyone who reads TV Forum for a while knows it is fun for readers and contributors here to speculate on this question,

Sometimes the fun is just overwhelming.

Why do we need to blather on and on about who's worst at anything? There are enough negative comments here on different nationalities and races without the "fun" of targeting even more.

Personally, my heart is with you.

But if we examine closely what people talk about, and then examine relative amounts of time devoted to which types of conversation, we usually discover that most time is devoted to gossip, gossip about shortcomings of our neighbors, or about other groups.

So if we were to stop gossiping then what would we have left?

Discussion of Nano Particles in Physics?

I will be glad, as presumably will you, when this happens.

Until then, it is these polls and thinking about these polls which will be often reported in the SCMP.

Otherwise, what would people read about?

Falling water tables and the over taxed aquifers of Chiang Mai?

Edited August 30, 2013 by OldChinaHam

[gamini]

A silly stupid topic. You can not judge tourists by thier country. There are tour groups, individuakl tourists

and high spending tourists from every country. Each behaves very differently.

[Falcon01]

Chinese tourists groups are the worst! Rude, loud and pushy!

[OldChinaHam]

Gamini, this topic is written about in a majority of the world's newspapers these days.

Even the Chinese government is often speaking out about this topic.

The government there believes this topic is important.

Carving Chinese characters into 3000 year old relics is not silly.

So, for many reasons, I believe this topic is worthy of further reflection and comment.

We can all take a lesson from reading about the mistakes made by other tourists

So that we do not repeat the same errors.

Edited August 30, 2013 by OldChinaHam

[Traxster]

I vote Russians...

Too loud....especially when you'r e in an elevator and they start talking to each other...VERY LOUDLY !!

Too small swimwear....especially when the lady is hugely over weight and wearing a .......string bikini ??

Too many.....

[krisb]

Silly topic that gets raised often. All it does is start arguments and becomes offensive quickly.

[krisb]

Not to mention racist. Like your washing machine thread.

[1Ping1]

Short and sweet. While US may have shot some people when they had done nothing other than protest roughly 25 yrs ago....... Yes, freedom of speech is allowed in America. I would hate to be a tourist in China when they for the hell of it mowed down students or anyone in their path. Just to prove..... No you do not have these rights...... Yeah, this one frosts me. Guy has agenda, w devious people though you never know what it is. Gee.....maybe we do a survey on that instead....

[1Ping1]

Oh yeah, forgot to add. Their freedom of speech was mowed down like grass w tanks...

[chrisinth]

The worst tourists are the ones (the 'special' people) who are not restricted to national boundaries and are prevalent in all nations/countries/races/religions, every defining group, that is known throughout the globe today.

This is my point of view, because this is what affects me and this is what I see. The idiots from America, UK, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia have similar traits and can normally be identified by the language they are using.

If the definition is to be used for matters of tourism, economy, industry, etc, that is another matter, and does not affect me directly. Don't do statistics.

Remember, statistics are 100% numbers. Facts related to statistics are not.

IMHO of course..............

[StreetCowboy]

Football tourists generally attract a poor reputation

[OldChinaHam]

Football tourists generally attract a poor reputation

Hadn't thought of this. But they probably do take the cake,

Though not in the culinary department.

[OldChinaHam]

The worst tourists are the ones (the 'special' people) who are not restricted to national boundaries and are prevalent in all nations/countries/races/religions, every defining group, that is known throughout the globe today.

This is my point of view, because this is what affects me and this is what I see. The idiots from America, UK, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia have similar traits and can normally be identified by the language they are using.

If the definition is to be used for matters of tourism, economy, industry, etc, that is another matter, and does not affect me directly. Don't do statistics.

Remember, statistics are 100% numbers. Facts related to statistics are not.

IMHO of course..............

I suppose dolts would have been a better word choice, in retrospect.

My choice is to not be either a dolt or a tourist.

If I want to go see a country sometime,

I just drop what I am doing and go.

I stay there long enough to learn the language and enjoy the food,

Usually about 3 years, or 30 years.

Otherwise, I just go on business for less than a week,

And contribute to the economies of the countries I visit.

[StefanBBK]

Worst tourists ever are Greenlanders. They mess up the air-conditioning, finish off all the ice cubes and generally overdresss.

This comes from a German, who does not own a beach towel.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[OldChinaHam]

Worst tourists ever are Greenlanders. They mess up the air-conditioning, finish off all the ice cubes and generally overdresss.

This comes from a German, who does not own a beach towel.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

You know, I have never even met a Greenlander in my travels, but I would like to. I hear they are growing a lot more potatoes up there now that their ice is melting and there is more rich farmland exposed.

I think the reason I have not met any is because there probably aren't too many. For example, I just completed a Google Earth search of Greenland and I did not see even one major city.

Do they even have travel agents up there in Greenland? I would not mind having a Greenlander to my house sometime. The internet has that new program which allows me to post on a website to advertise that I have a free sofa on which to sleep.

I am thinking if I invite one, then I might get invited up to Greenland. I want to get up there to see that place before all the ice is lost to the sea, and maybe reverses the circulation in the Atlantic Ocean in the process. No wonder they need our ice cubes!

[StefanBBK]

Been there. Way to go is with an expedition ship. Nice place and honestly really nice people I met.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Pinot]

Americans are the #1 rated tourist by the Thais. The ladies especially are impressed but then again, I'm a very handsome man.

[AlexRRR]

CHINESE without a dout had wanted to go there once....once.....not anymore, well i did once go to HK but thats hardly the real china and that was a turn off as well.

[OldChinaHam]

Americans are the #1 rated tourist by the Thais. The ladies especially are impressed but then again, I'm a very handsome man.

Do you really think this is true?

I hope it is true.

Last time I mentioned to a Thai friend that I come from Taiwan,

She corrected me and said, no, I come from America.

I do think that often I am not the world's worst tourist.

But I almost used to be when I was very young.

Then we would do almost anything on the HK to Taiwan Flights.

The girls working on the airlines would be real patient with us.

And we never did anything truly terrible.

But we tried to see how much free wine we could drink in 45 minutes, and usually drank a bottle and a half, or more before touchdown.

They would help us off the plane, usually.

And I have never witnessed any other tourist half this bad.

So I tend to be very tolerant in my dotage now.

And if someone is misbehaving a bit,

I just look the other way, or sigh, or something.

And now I really do hope that people in Thailand like Americans.

Because, we really like them, too.

[OldChinaHam]

CHINESE without a dout had wanted to go there once....once.....not anymore, well i did once go to HK but thats hardly the real china and that was a turn off as well.

You are correct.

HK, comparatively speaking, has been bad news since 1997.

Everyone knows this.

[Travel2003]

Americans are the #1 rated tourist by the Thais. The ladies especially are impressed but then again, I'm a very handsome man.

I think I read somewhere that Americans are among the most generous when it comes to tipping.

[OldChinaHam]

Americans are the #1 rated tourist by the Thais. The ladies especially are impressed but then again, I'm a very handsome man.

I think I read somewhere that Americans are among the most generous when it comes to tipping.

In this case, this time,

Tipping may be on topic.

But no one tips in Taiwan, and I don't know about Thailand but it seems no one tips in most places either.

[StreetCowboy]

Americans are the #1 rated tourist by the Thais. The ladies especially are impressed but then again, I'm a very handsome man.

I think I read somewhere that Americans are among the most generous when it comes to tipping.

In this case, this time,

Tipping may be on topic.

But no one tips in Taiwan, and I don't know about Thailand but it seems no one tips in most places either.

Tipping is prevalent in Thailand - sometimes I wonder if there is no refuse collection at all.

I agree, though, that in Taiwan, certainly in Taipei, tipping is very much a thing of the past and the recycling and refuse collection is excellent

SC