The drink-fueled antics of young Britons causing havoc on holiday are well-known -- but Britain's over-55s are now joining them in getting into trouble while abroad, the British Foreign Office said on Thursday.
It said it had witnessed the rise of an OAP - -- "overseas and plastered" -- phenomenon among the over-55s.
British embassies abroad are having to cope with a growing number of incidents involving the older generation, as well as the traditional lager louts who get themselves arrested or hospitalized following drunken pranks.
A survey of 1,020 British adults for the Foreign Office showed that 20 percent of over-55s try activities abroad that they would not do at home.
Bungee-jumping, parasailing, water-skiing and moped-riding are just some of the activities on the holiday itineraries of today's older generation.
Despite making three times as many travel insurance claims than younger travelers, 65 percent of those surveyed admitted to taking their last trip overseas without insurance and more than 80 percent do not have a health check before traveling.
Almost a fifth of couples say they or their partner have been injured abroad, 14 percent are less worried about their personal safety abroad than at home and more than a tenth do not follow the safety advice they would give to their children.
"The Foreign Office is all for over-55s having fun on holiday, but it is crucial that they make some simple preparations to help avoid encountering difficulties whilst abroad," Foreign Office Minister Meg Munn said.
"Acquiring adequate travel insurance is a must and health scares abroad can be avoided by visiting a GP [doctor] and having a health check before embarking on a holiday," she said.
More than half drink more alcohol while on holiday than at home.
"Most problems that we see with the older generation of Brits arise from over-consumption of alcohol and food," said Rania Kossiori, British vice-consul on the Greek island of Rhodes.
"Drinking and staying too long in the sun can make you ill and undertaking strenuous activity like going swimming or snorkeling after a large meal can put you in unnecessary danger. People have drowned this way," she said.
"After one too many drinks people can become abusive, for example shouting at resort staff," she said.
"We've also had instances where a few too many drinks has led older guests to overestimate their strength, for example going swimming in bad weather conditions, which has ended in tragedy," she said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
RSS