When you picture an American tourist in Europe, a certain cliché is bound to spring to mind. Perhaps you envision a loud, bumbling traveler in a large tour group, who doesn’t attempt to adhere to cultural customs or speak the local language, and who is impatient at tourist attractions and restaurants.
But do these stereotypes actually have any truth to them? Or are they outdated tropes that don’t represent the majority of US travelers? A new study is shedding light on the matter.
To get to the bottom of how Europeans really see American travelers, Upgraded Points surveyed more than 2,200 people across 22 European countries on their general view of US tourists. The travel credit card advice site also asked Europeans whether recent political events impacted their opinions. For comparison, they also surveyed 1,000 American travelers on their views of the typical US tourist.
How Europeans really see American tourists
On the whole, Americans actually had a much harsher view of themselves as tourists than the European respondents did. “Americans often assume the worst about how they come off, while Europeans see a more balanced, though definitely still loud, picture,” the study said.
Indeed, the one matter on which both groups agreed was that American travelers can be loud: 70% of Europeans said loudness was a typical trait of US tourists, while 69% of Americans agreed.
But volume aside, Europeans had quite a favorable view of US tourists, with 64% of European respondents saying US travelers are friendly (compared to just 44% of Americans who agreed), and 46% saying US tourists are curious (with only 31% of Americans saying the same thing about themselves).
When it came to less endearing qualities, American respondents were much more likely to view themselves in a negative light than Europeans. More than half of Americans said that US tourists are arrogant (53%) compared to just 27% of Europeans. Likewise, 40% of Americans said that US travelers are rude, while only 12% of Europeans agreed.
When it comes to some of those aforementioned stereotypes, some Europeans do believe at least a few to be true. For example, 61% said US tourists think everyone in Europe speaks English, while 30% said Americans often ignore local customs.
Where do Americans annoy European locals the most?
The survey also identified the European countries that are most and least annoyed with American tourists. Among the most annoyed countries are Portugal (with 18.8% of respondents saying they’re annoyed by US travelers), Belgium (18.3%), Ireland (17.4%), Netherlands (14.9%), and Denmark (14.8%).
The countries where respondents said they are the least annoyed by American tourists include Poland, where just 7% of survey participants said they found American tourists annoying, Spain (7.8%), the UK (8.8%), Greece (8.8%), and Latvia (9.6%).
The European countries that welcome Americans
The report also examined which European countries saw themselves as most and least welcoming to US travelers. Belgium was named the most welcoming country for Americans, with just 1.9% of participants saying that their nation is unwelcoming to American tourists. Belgium’s warm hospitality was closely followed by Italy (2%), Estonia (3%), Netherlands (3%), Finland (3%), and Poland (3%).