Badly behaved

Thu, Jul 17 01:05 AM

Indians aren't winning any popularity contests abroad. A recent study conducted by French travel website, Expedia.

fr placed India at the lowly 20th position amongst the 21 nations surveyed. China came last, while the French, infamous for their obnoxious behaviour, actually fared a tad better than India at 19.

The winners were the Japanese, considered the most polite, quiet and tidy. The survey was taken by employees in 4,000 hotels in Germany, UK, Italy, France, Canada and the US. It asked respondents to rank clients by nationality on attitude, politeness, tendency to complain, willingness to speak local languages, interest in sampling local cuisine, readiness to spend money, generosity, cleanliness, discretion and elegance.

According to tour operators and regular travellers these aren't criteria on which Indians are likely to score high. "The new travellers aren't keen to sample local cuisine or culture.

A lot of affluent families who travel overseas are terribly finicky about food and I've heard of incidents where guests in five-star hotels were found cooking Maggi in their rooms," says Ankur Bhatia of Amadeus. "The major factor against them must have been the fact that they are noisy, and stringent tippers," explains Tish Khanna, director, Rainbow Tours and Travels.

"We've tie-ups with star-rated hotels in Europe and we often get complaints that Indian travellers make a mess of the bathrooms." According to the survey, the French scored badly because they aren't conversant in English and are characterised as impolite.

Americans (at No 11) demanded exceptional service, which is why they rank as the loudest, most inclined to complain and among the least polite. Following the Japanese as most-liked tourists were the Germans, Brits and Canadians.

The ranking doesn't come as a surprise to industrialist Peter Punj, who travels abroad frequently. "I feel affluence has made Indians arrogant and that showed in the survey.

In London, I've seen rich tourists making an ugly show of money and picking fights at expensive nightclubs. At the Four Seasons, New York, renowned for impeccable service, our nouveau riche travellers still find fault.

" Hotelier Yanchi Vadera says, "Indians are pathetic tippers and often do things that are typically not allowed in any star hotels, like keeping a guest overnight in the room. And oh yes, they are noisy.

" Is the Indian traveller listening?.

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