Most Obnoxious Tourists ? - An Excerpt

Photo by : Oxymanus

Most Obnoxious Tourists? The French - Excerpt from Time.com

By BRUCE CRUMLEY / PARIS Sun Jul 6, 10:45 PM ET

Remember the tightwad tourist whose baggy shorts, frequent complaining and shouted questions about why none of the locals spoke any English made the ugly American the world's Visitor From Hell? Well, it's time for Archie Bunker to move over and make way for Petulant Pierre. According to a recent international survey, the French are now considered the most obnoxious tourists from European nations, and behind only Indians and the last-place Chinese as the worst among all countries worldwide. And it's not only the rest of the world that have a gripe with the Gallic attitude: the French also finished second to last among nations ranking the popularity of their own tourists who vacation at home.
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But it's the unflattering image being reflected from abroad that may give pause to the millions of French travelers now heading off to summer vacation destinations across the globe. Will that move them to improve behavior the poll characterized as impolite, prone to loud carping and inattentive to local customs? If so, that's just the start: the study also describes the voyageur franÇais as often unwilling or unable to communicate in foreign languages, and particularly disinclined to spending money when they don't have to - including on those non compris tips. Over all, French travelers landed 19th out of 21 nations worldwide, far behind the first-place Japanese, considered most polite, quiet and tidy. Following the Japanese as most-liked tourists were the Germans, British and Canadians. Americans finished in 11th place alongside the Thais.

The survey was carried out among employees in 4,000 hotels in Germany, the U.K., Italy, France, Canada and the U.S. for the French travel website Expedia.fr. The study asked respondents to rank clients by nationality on criteria of general attitude, politeness, tendency to complain, willingness to speak local languages, interest in sampling local cuisine, readiness to spend money, generosity, cleanliness, discretion and elegance. Many replies simply conformed to long-established reputations: Italians, for example, were described as the best-dressed tourists, with the French not far behind.

American tourists fared well in some surprising ways: despite being notoriously language-limited, for example, they top the list of tourists credited with trying to speak local languages the most, with the French, Chinese, Japanese, Italians and Russians coming in last in the local language rankings. Does that mean Americans are the most polyglot tourists on the planet? Maybe not, says Expedia's marketing director for Europe, TimothÉe de Roux, who notes the poll's focus on hotel operators may explain the counterintuitive outcome.

"Most hotel staffs around the world speak English, meaning they'll communicate far more easily with native English-speaking American or British clients than with French or Italians who - it's true - are pretty bad with foreign languages," de Roux says.

De Roux explains how external factors similarly account for why Americans wind up as the biggest-spending and best-tipping tourists, while Germans and the French are among the worst penny-pinchers. "Our findings show the average French employee will get 37 vacation days spread over seven trips in 2008, versus 14 for an American - who won't even take them all," de Roux believes. "That means the French tourist will more tightly budget his or her spending over more trips, while the American spends freely on the one or two vacations taken all year."

By contrast, poll finds the French and Americans similar in being perceived as critical and rude when they travel - though for different reasons. The same local attractions that make France the world's top destination for 92 million foreign visitors each year, says de Roux, also explains why over 85% of French vacation in-country - and wind up spoiled by it when they leave. "When they go abroad, French travellers demand the same quality they'd get at home," de Roux says. "Americans, by contrast, demand the same exceptional service they are used to at home, which is why they rank as the loudest, most inclined to complain, and among the least polite." View this article on Time.com

Bangkok Jams

Photos by : Oxymanus




My second trip to Bangkok was amazingly interesting. It was a business trip with my client and i took advantage to get as much information as i can to prepare for the final event that is taking place early next month.

The impressive new airport greeted my anxious soul to the Land of the Smiles,this time only more cautiously albeit breathtakingly. Bangkok has changed through leaps and bounds, its people modern and affluent and its infrastructure more developed than before. This is evident at the point of arriving at its airport doorstep right until you have boarded your limousine that brings you to the hotel ultimately.It is not that i have not seen the shifting scenes of Bangkok's modernity in the past but knowing and having noticed about the various hotels being opened in that City of Angels and all the television and internet reports about whats going on through the years, good or bad notwithstanding, have given me some sort of an idea of what to expect and see of this thriving ASEAN city. The smiles are still intact on their Thai faces except that they are not smiling while they are driving into the city. Reason ; ? the infamous and ubiquitous Bangkok Jam.

Wow the city has tremendously grown pretty well with its fine planning and good governance. Modern skyscrapers that painted the panorama from all broad directions clearly enthused Modern Thailand as an Asian economic tiger that was something to reckon and gawk at especially if you are driving towards the metroplis

I don't see people climbing over the roof of the buses anymore, i.e. people in their sarongs that clung hard in the hot basking sun to the railings on the vehicle either going to work or returning home smiled gleefully watching you as though happy too to see you on the other side of the vehicle.The foul dark diesel fumes that was emitted by its engines along the bumpy laterite roads have also disappeared. All that is a thing of the past.

The highways that lead to the city denote the tremendous years of development that has been going on for the past 25 years. The Thais should be commended for their hard work and determination to transform their country into what it is today, almost to one's great pride and personal admiration.

The old airport at Don Muang was quite near the city then but i was already being warned about getting to the airport early, even many years before. So you can say that the Bangkok Jam is very much a social character of the City of Angels way back when.

After my check-in at the Dusit Thani Hotel, long regarded as the Dame of Thai Traditonal Hospitality in the city i decided to explore the city almost immediately.
Why the Dusit ? my Thai friend asked me. I told him that i have always admired the Dusit as the finest hotel in the city long before the other hotel chains embraced the country in anticipation of its successful tourism campaigns in the years later on often with the "VISIT THAILAND YEAR " tagline.

The economic recession is over, the protests and demos are still going on near the Democratic monument, the military government is still running the country and the southern region is still unstable but Thailand as in Bangkok is far from anything that would give in to any of its woes. Bangkok is alive, growing and kicking almost daily. The throngs of tourists queuing at the airport is testimony of this.
There's an Israeli El Al carrier, ANA ( All Nippon Airways), Turkish Airlines, Qatar etc. Yes the Middle Easterners are invading Bangkok but this has been going on for many years already.

While Malaysia was quickly to learn from the success of its Thai neighbour's tourism strategy, the Middle East tourists are still coming to enjoy Bangkok , in more numbers than ever before but without their women and children. The visitors are more younger and adventurous. Rather noisy too i should say, maybe its what most Arab people are especially when in their own group of travelers mingling and overeacting about almost anything they encounter along the way, not much of a package tour kind i observe but due to their regular visits which made these visitors feeling very like their second home,i supposed.