Rude, penny-pinching and terrible at foreign languages: French people are the world’s worst tourists according to a study of the global hotel industry released last week.
Carried out last month by TNS Infratest, the study asked 40,000 hotels worldwide to rank tourists from 27 countries based on nine criteria, from their politeness to their willingness to tip.
Clean and tidy, polite, quiet and uncomplaining, Japanese tourists came top of the crop for the third year running.
At the other end of the spectrum, French holidaymakers and business travellers were the least generous or ready to tip, and ranked next-to-last for their overall behavior and politeness.
Pushy French travellers made amends on elegance — classed third — as well as for their discretion and cleanliness.
But the French were the least ready to try a new language, unlike US tourists who were most likely to swallow their pride and order a pizza, baguette or a paella in the local lingo.
US tourists 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 behavior, politeness, quietness and even elegance — second for dress sense only to the Italians.
But the model Japanese were followed by Canadians as the least likely to whinge when a trip goes wrong.
France’s rivals for the “worst tourist” tag, Spaniards and Greeks came near the bottom of the pack in almost every category. (AFP)
上週公佈的一項全球旅館業調查顯示，沒禮貌、一毛不拔又不通外語的法國人是全球最差勁的遊客。
市調機構TNS Infratest上個月完成的這份市調訪問了全球四萬家旅館，受訪旅館依照旅客的禮儀到給小費的意願等九項標準，幫來自二十七個國家的旅客排名。
乾淨整潔、彬彬有禮、安靜又不愛抱怨的日本遊客連續三年獲選為全球最受歡迎的旅客。
相反地，法國的假日遊客和商務旅客則是給小費最不大方或最不情願的一群，在整體表現和禮儀方面的排名倒數第二。
作風強勢的法國旅客靠優雅的舉止加回一些分數，在優雅度排行第三，他們的謹慎和愛好整潔也獲得好評。
但法國人被評為最不願意嘗試新語言的遊客，而美國遊客最願意放下身段，使用當地語言點比薩、法國麵包或是西班牙燉飯。
美國遊客也被評為最大方的旅客，花錢最大方、給小費也最大方；但在其他方面卻未達水準，如最不整潔、最吵鬧、最愛抱怨和穿著最不得體。
雖然英國遊客每年夏天湧進地中海度假勝地狂飲啤酒受人詬病，但他們卻出人意外地在整體行為、禮儀、安靜，甚至優雅度等類別名列第二，在穿衣品味類別也僅次於義大利遊客。
旅途出錯也不太會抱怨的旅客由日本拿下第一，其次則是加拿大。
和法國競爭「超級奧客」寶座的國家還有西班牙和希臘，他們在各項類別中幾乎都是吊車尾。
（法新社╱翻譯：袁星塵）
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