<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>French ranked world's worst tourists
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Survey finds them arrogant; Japanese travellers are top again </TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->PARIS: French tourists are the worst in the world, coming across as bad at foreign languages, tight-fisted and arrogant, according to a survey of 4,500 hotel owners across the world.
They finished in last place in the survey carried out last month for Internet travel agency Expedia by polling company TNS Infratest, which said French holidaymakers don't speak local languages and are seen as impolite.
'It's mainly the fact that they speak little or no English when they're abroad, and they don't speak much of the local language,' Expedia marketing director Timothee de Roux told radio station France Info.
'The French don't go abroad very much. We're lucky enough to have a country which is magnificent in terms of its landscape and culture,' he said, adding that 90 per cent of French people did their travelling at home.
Thus, he added, the French could become stressed when they travelled overseas and it could translate to demanding and arrogant behaviour.
French tourists are also accused of generally spending less than other nationalities when abroad.
Mr de Roux attributed this to the fact that his countrymen were not accustomed to leaving large tips in France, where a service charge is automatically levied on restaurant bills.
The Best Tourist study asked hotels worldwide to rank tourists from 27 countries based on nine criteria, from their politeness to their willingness to tip.
Japanese travellers, who are deemed clean and tidy, polite, quiet and uncomplaining, are the top of the crop for the third year running.
Their difficulty in speaking other languages is their only drawback.
This criterion is also where the French faltered - they are said to be the least ready to try a new language, unlike US tourists, who are the most likely to swallow their pride and order a pizza, baguette or paella in the local lingo.
Americans 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.
France's rivals for the 'worst tourist' tag are Spaniards and Greeks, who came in near the bottom of the pack in almost every category.
The study was released on Thursday.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Survey finds them arrogant; Japanese travellers are top again </TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->PARIS: French tourists are the worst in the world, coming across as bad at foreign languages, tight-fisted and arrogant, according to a survey of 4,500 hotel owners across the world.
They finished in last place in the survey carried out last month for Internet travel agency Expedia by polling company TNS Infratest, which said French holidaymakers don't speak local languages and are seen as impolite.
'It's mainly the fact that they speak little or no English when they're abroad, and they don't speak much of the local language,' Expedia marketing director Timothee de Roux told radio station France Info.
'The French don't go abroad very much. We're lucky enough to have a country which is magnificent in terms of its landscape and culture,' he said, adding that 90 per cent of French people did their travelling at home.
Thus, he added, the French could become stressed when they travelled overseas and it could translate to demanding and arrogant behaviour.
French tourists are also accused of generally spending less than other nationalities when abroad.
Mr de Roux attributed this to the fact that his countrymen were not accustomed to leaving large tips in France, where a service charge is automatically levied on restaurant bills.
The Best Tourist study asked hotels worldwide to rank tourists from 27 countries based on nine criteria, from their politeness to their willingness to tip.
Japanese travellers, who are deemed clean and tidy, polite, quiet and uncomplaining, are the top of the crop for the third year running.
Their difficulty in speaking other languages is their only drawback.
This criterion is also where the French faltered - they are said to be the least ready to try a new language, unlike US tourists, who are the most likely to swallow their pride and order a pizza, baguette or paella in the local lingo.
Americans 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.
France's rivals for the 'worst tourist' tag are Spaniards and Greeks, who came in near the bottom of the pack in almost every category.
The study was released on Thursday.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
