In June, a British tourist successfully sued his travel company for £750 because they’d sent him to a resort in Greece which (in his opinion) had ‘too many Germans’. Das Bild, the Federal Republic’s leading tabloid newspaper, retaliated by publishing a list of holiday destinations to be avoided – all British dominated. These included San Antonio (Ibiza), Playa de la s Americas (Tenerife) and Faliraki (Rhodes). It also mocked Britain’s cuisine, binge-drinking and inability to take football penalties. According to a recent ‘Expedia’ survey, however, the British are no longer ‘the world’s worst tourists’. That status, assessed on  the basis of impoliteness, Untidiness, noise and unwillingness to attempt the local language now belongs to the French. The British have dropped to fifth in this league behind the Indians, Chinese and Russians though with their ‘socks and sandals’ image are still considered the second ‘worst-dressed tourists’ after the Americans. The Japanese are regarded as the best-behaved.

In 2007, UK residents made about 70 million visits abroad, almost half as ‘package holidays’. A Norwich Union ‘ Holiday Habits’ report has concluded that a third of Britons know little about the customs of the country they are going to and don’t bother to learn even the most useful basic phrases. Those heading for the tropics often ‘gamble with their health’ by not being vaccinated before departure or neglect to take anti-malaria pills with them. Once they arrive, they face other problems. The introduction of chip & pin technology has (contrary to the supposed objective) led to a significant increase in credit and debit card fraud abroad. 400,000 British holiday-makers were victims in 2007, double the average of the previous four years. Thousands also end up in police cells or in hospital instead of on the beach, invariably due  to drinking  more alcohol than they are accustomed to back home. In Spain, 1,549 Britons were arrested last year while on vacation . In the USA: 1,368. Cyprus: 330. Many others either lost their passports or had them stolen, mostly in Spain (6,078), followed by the USA (3,064) and Germany (1,236). The UK Embassy in the Czech Republic receives frequent night-time phone calls from participants in hen and stag parties who have mislaid their documents, cash and even their clothes.

75% of British pre-wedding celebrations now take places abroad (mainly Eastern Europe), the most popular venues being Talinn (Estonia), Bratislava (Slovakia), Prague and Berlin. One in four of these occasions (according to Foreign Office statistics) results in anti-social disorder requiring the intervention of both the local police and British consular staff.. Even the over 55’s  seem to cast their discretion aside on foreign holidays. One in five takes risks they wouldn’t contemplate at home: bungee-jumping, water-skiiing and riding mopeds. If uninsured, they have to pay for any consequent medical treatment.

There are signs that the ‘credit crunch’ and the decline in the value of the pound from  1.50 euros to under 1.20  is already having an impact on travel to continental Europe. Travelodge research has also found that 50% of Britons are prepared to reduce their flights abroad to help the environment. Over 27 million people  will visit the UK coastline this year (weather permitting).. Devon & Newquay (South –West England) Brighton & Bournemouth (South Coast) and Scarborough & Blackpool in the north are the most popular English  destinations. This resurgence of the traditional seaside holiday is having one unforeseen consequence – the depletion of sand on the country’s beaches. Each person arriving by car inadvertently takes home 5.95kg of it in their towels, shoes, clothes, blankets and hair. That’s a total of 160,650,000kg of valuable British sand disappearing every year.

Filed under: Posted on July 1st, 2008 by Colin D Gordon