Japanese voted world's best tourists by hoteliers

Mumbai, July 9 : The second annual global Best Tourist Survey, conducted by Expedia, the world's leading online travel company, has ranked the Japanese as the world's best tourists overall among the 27 nationalities surveyed.

Around 4,500 hoteliers across the globe provided their opinions on the best travellers overall, as well as on specific categories including politeness, generosity, behaviour, tidiness, fashion sense, willingness to try and speak the local language, and the propensity to complain.

Like last year, the Japanese won the top prize, with hoteliers worldwide naming them as the world's best tourists. They were ranked not only as the quietest and most polite, but also the cleanest and least likely to complain. The British again came in second place overall, followed by the Canadians.

The survey also revealed that the French hold the unenviable reputation for being the world's worst tourists. According to hoteliers, as well as being the most frugal and meanest tippers, they can also lay claim to being the most impolite tourists.

Arthur Hoffman, Managing Director, Expedia Asia Pacific, said: 'Hoteliers are experts when it comes to interacting with tourists and the annual global Expedia Best Tourist Survey presents some interesting and intriguing perceptions about tourists from around the world.'

The Best and the Worst in this year's Expedia Best Tourist Survey:
Worldwide, the Japanese, British, Canadians, Germans and Australians are considered the most polite nations.

The top three loudest nations are the Americans, Italians and the Spanish

After the Americans and the British, the next biggest tippers are the Germans and the Japanese

Canadians and Swiss were the other nationalities named as least likely to complain

Overall Ranking
1 Japanese 14 New Zealanders
2 British 16 Thais
3 Canadians 17 Portuguese
4 Germans 17 Czechs
5 Swiss 19 Italians
6 Dutch 19 Irish
6 Australians 19 Brazilians
8 Swedish 22 Polish
8 Americans 22 South Africans
10 Danes 24 Turkish
10 Norwegians 24 Greeks
10 Finnish 26 Spanish
10 Belgians 27 French
14 Austrian

Expedia.co.in Top Tips for Indian tourists:

Read up on the local customs before you travel so that you don't inadvertently cause insult or offence.

Be considerate towards locals and other fellow travellers; leave your hotel, restaurant and other sites in a clean and tidy condition.

Learn some basic words from the local language such as how to say 'hello' and 'good-bye' and 'please' and 'thank you'; the locals will appreciate the effort.

Be environmentally conscious on your travels; use water and power sparingly.

Be mindful that you and your group could well be noisy so try lowering your voice.

Dress up a little – although you may be on a holiday, show off some of our great Indian clothing designs.

The survey was conducted during the period 10-23 June 2009 on a total of 4557 hotel managers from Expedia partner hotels worldwide who were randomly selected and contacted via email by the research company, TNS Infratest.

--IBNS