On Tourism

While one might take for granted that it’s the people in the tourist industry that are assessed for their service quality, it’s interesting to note that tourists are also being assessed for their friendliness and conduct.

A report in the Channel NewsAsia webpage reports that “Pushy French are world's worst tourists”.

This was the result of a study of the global hotel industry, evaluating tourists from different nationalities based on nine criteria from their politeness to their willingness to tip.

Turns out, Japanese tourists were top for the third year in a row, for their tidiness, politeness and discretion. French tourists, as mentioned in the title, turned out to be the worst, for being the least generous on tipping, as well as being most unwilling to pick up the local language.

So, what does this report tell us about tourists in general?

First, I think the study has its inaccuracies. The evaluation of tourists based on politeness is fair enough, since it gives a good indication of the civility of these tourists, but to judge tourists based on their ability to tip is being somewhat expedient.

Second, it can be somewhat stereotypical to look at tourists by the country they came from.

Nevertheless, this study does break many of the perceptions that people have about tourists. Americans are the most generous in tipping, but also turn out to be the loudest, the rudest, and the most badly dressed, while the British, thought to be “beer-guzzling hordes”, emerged second in the study.


That being ranked low in such a study can show some things about that country, and tourism in general:

First, the French are truly proud of their language. That’s probably why they'll use French even when being pushy: “L’etat c’est moi!” (I am the State!)

Second, the problem of declining service in many countries (including our own) cannot be interpreted one-sidedly as a manner of poor service quality. The poor response and rapport from the tourists also matter. After all, a travel experience can only be fun if the tourist was willing to play his/her part in the experience.

Third, it’s a lesson for us as tourists too. We are watching the service quality of the service providers, but we are also being watched as tourists too.

So when we are treated badly as tourists in other countries, think about whether the service provider was bad, or we have had a very bad reputation as tourists?