PARIS (Reuters Life!) – 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 finish in last place in the survey carried out 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 traveling at home.
"So when they're on holiday they can be a bit stressed, they're not used to things, and this can lead them to be demanding in a way which could be seen as a certain arrogance."
French tourists are also accused of generally spending less than other nationalities when abroad.
De Roux said the French, not accustomed to leaving large tips at home where a service charge is automatically levied on restaurant bills, can seem "tight-fisted" compared with other nationalities.
The Japanese ranked top of the Best Tourist survey, with the British and the Germans judged the best of the Europeans.
But French tourists received some consolation for their poor performance, finishing third after the Italians and British for dress sense while on holiday.
(Reporting by Joseph Tandy; editing by James Mackenzie)
I found this hilarious.
Title: Re: French Tourists Seen As World's Worst
Post by: kinjo on July 09, 2009, 09:47:07 PM
thats funny i read this a few hours ago on yahoo, and BAM! its on the 4m lol i like french movies, you can tell these people are high stressed and blunt
Title: Re: French Tourists Seen As World's Worst
Post by: Wesker on July 09, 2009, 09:54:28 PM
I love french movies as well as the language, but they aren't the easiest people to cope with in New Jersey when they all vacation there.
Title: Re: French Tourists Seen As World's Worst
Post by: Adelaide on July 09, 2009, 09:58:32 PM
xD WHOOOHOOO! GO GERMANS =P
Nah whenever the German exchange students come, they are awesome... really chill people, nice and polite, constantly... they aren't ever arrogant, and when they question the culture (like the one asked why we needed to get permission to leave the classroom to go to the bathroom; he foudn that it seemed embarrassing and some privacy invasion, as well as a classroom disturbance) they never do it in a way that seems like they are attacking the culture
I never spoke or even saw a french exchange student so i couldnt compare the two
Title: Re: French Tourists Seen As World's Worst
Post by: Wesker on July 09, 2009, 10:19:55 PM
There are two German exchange students at my school, Maximillian and Benedict. One of them bumped right into me in the hall hard and kept on moving without saying a word. But he's nice to everyone else.
Title: Re: French Tourists Seen As World's Worst
Post by: Adelaide on July 09, 2009, 10:30:05 PM
oO Strange.. but you can't really stereotype everyone *shrug*
I'm currently trying to convince my parents to let me move to Lithuania for a year with one of our relatives, go to school there, get to know another culture, learn more about my roots, ya know?
So far they just think its another one of my crazy random ideas I'm not very serious about, but really I would like to be able to... I just think it is a pretty out there idea and it may not happen... probably won't.. but if it did I think it'd be a real gewd experience... I've never been outside America...
Title: Re: French Tourists Seen As World's Worst
Post by: TwitchLord on July 10, 2009, 12:03:47 AM
we had some cool exchange students one of them was from equador
Title: Re: French Tourists Seen As World's Worst
Post by: kinjo on July 10, 2009, 08:47:43 AM
u guys should watch the pink panther movies the originals, those are awesome french films
Title: Re: French Tourists Seen As World's Worst
Post by: Flashwerewolf on July 10, 2009, 10:59:00 AM
I watched em! [spot]
Title: Re: French Tourists Seen As World's Worst
Post by: ShinamoriAoshi on July 10, 2009, 03:26:59 PM
thats funny i read this a few hours ago on yahoo, and BAM! its on the 4m lol i like french movies, you can tell these people are high stressed and blunt
huh the French...
Title: Re: French Tourists Seen As World's Worst
Post by: Adelaide on July 15, 2009, 10:19:58 PM
wasn't this topic like... dead?
Title: Re: French Tourists Seen As World's Worst
Post by: Xicor on July 16, 2009, 08:42:06 AM