Benidorm: British tourists have long been the despair of the world, but there's competiton. Photo / Getty Images
We tourists are the worst.
There's something in the sea breeze, the unfamiliar sounds, or perhaps the third – no fourth – aperitif that makes us behave differently while on holiday.
We get up to things we'd never think of doing while on home soil.
The setting of a foreign holiday can lead to the loosening up of budgets, bathing suits and risky behaviour. To hell with the sun block!
However, we now have science to blame.
A panel of psychologists and sociologists have agreed that the cocktail of time off and travel abroad can lead to some unfortunate results.
Travel leads to a lowering of inhibitions, reasons Dr Peter E Tarlow in his paper on policing unruly visitors.
"Because many travellers enjoy their feeling of anonymity, they are more willing to engage in rude, semi-legal or even illegal activities about which they would not engage at home. The problem of low inhibitions is one that runs throughout almost all aspects of tourism policing."
The tourism scholar argues that there's one thing worse than having to police the anti-social behavior of one's own citizens, and that's policing foreign tourists.
Another scholar who despairs of tourists behaviour is Hong Kong Polytechnic's Dr Denis Tolkach.
Speaking to the Telegraph he explains: "Tourism is a predominantly hedonic activity."
"Many people travel to escape their daily routines and pressures in a way which can lead to irrational behaviour. There is also an absence of the social norms and the judgement from peers that govern how we conduct ourselves at home."
With the feeling that you will never meet the people you come across on holiday again, social consequences are less of an inhibition.
"Overall, we find that people who consider morally dubious behaviours to be acceptable are driven by consequentialist ethics, meaning they are likely to undertake actions that are personally beneficial and for which they are unlikely to be punished," says Dr Tolkach.
Alcohol is almost certainly a factor when it comes to a lapse in behaviour while abroad.
When welcomed by resort 'happy hour' specials and all-day drinking at airport bars, many blame the environment that travellers find themselves in for making the matter worse.
In February, the UK mooted new restrictions on alcohol in airports that sent duty free retailers into uproar.
Amongst the measures to stop bad behaviour from British travellers, new measures included a ban on morning drinking at airport bars and a halt on the sale of duty free alcohol before midday.
Francois Bourienne, the Chair of the UK Travel Retail Forum, despaired of the idea. In an article for the Telegraph he argued that it would not only affect the ability to sell popular duty free items such as Scotch whiskey or London gin to passengers on morning flights but it would also "make flying less fun for a lot of people."
The carriers were in favour of new measures on airport alcohol.
Airlines UK, which represents 13 British carriers, said there had been a 66 per cent rise in incidents involving drunk passengers between 2015 and 2018.
However, in some countries restricting access to alcohol for travellers has actually led to an increase in disruptive behaviour.
In Europe, the Netherlands experimented with "free closing" which allowed airport bars to keep the opening hours as they saw fit - closing whenever they wanted to.
A report in to the 1987 experiment found that bars closing early led to more airport unrest. Oxford University researchers noted that "police remarked on the distinct decline in late-night public disorder which they attribute directly to the changes in licensing regulations."
However, it's when the drunken tourists pour out of the airport and into the streets of a foreign town that things get really messy.
From the World Health Organisation study into alcohol related crimes in 2014, Europe was a mixed bag for boozed fueled bad behaviour.
In countries where cheap pints are promoted as a tourist attraction, such as the Czech Republic, police found alcohol to be a factor in 21 per cent of the cases they were involved in.
Meanwhile in Norway and Finland, alcohol was found to be a factor in just 0.4 per cent and 0.8 per cent of police call outs.
This seems unsurprising when given the average price of 500ml of beer in €1.3 ($2.15) versus €9.06 ($15!) in Norway. Binge drinking is a pastime reserved for only the very wealthiest of Nordic nationals.
The cost of a pint seems to dictate the type of tourism, and perhaps the type of tourist a destination attracts.
However, in this very patchy study, countries including France and Italy had failed to submit any data.
When interviewed by sociologists on the links between booze and anti-social behaviour and violence those questioned in the countries insisted that it didn't factor in the same way as it did for British tourists.
Drink was more associated with food and la dolce vita, rather than beachside brawls.
"The research in Italy, in particular, shows clearly that the associations between drinking and aggression which we find in Britain, are almost completely absent in that country," it reads. "Virtually all of the [subjects asked] failed to understand how or why the British could 'blame' drinking for youth disorder."
The researchers found there was a real north vs south divide in terms of binge drinking culture. Problem drinking was more likely to be done by northern Europeans, while on holiday in southern resorts.
The British abroad have long been the dismay of the rest of the world.
However, the crown for the worst behaved tourists may soon be taken by a challenger.
A series of incidents, including tourists having to be rescued from the side of Ruapehu or defecating on the Milford Track, have begun to eclipse the UK's efforts as the biggest exporter of badly behaved tourists.
In 2001 Chinese nationals made just 10.5 million overseas trips. Compare this to 2017, and the figure now stands at 145 million. In a very short space of time the amount of Chinese tourists eager to see the world has grown by 1380 per cent.
In response to this newfound hunger for holidays abroad, the Chinese government issued a directive called the 'Guide to Civilised Tourism and Travel'.
From the pages of which such sage travel tips can be gained as "Don't lie down in public" and "Don't cough, sneeze or pick your nose or teeth in front of others."
Perhaps it is time New Zealand's MFAT considered issuing a 'Kiwi guide to behaviour abroad.'
Although, the more pressing issue might be to help the tourism and service industries deal with problem tourists visiting Aotearoa.
Better still we should take a page out of the French "politeness manual" which was issued by the Paris City Council to tourist-facing businesses.
France has famously had a reputation for a no-nonsense attitude to tourists. The reputation for rudeness led to a 2015 campaign by the French tourism board to improve what it referred to as a "difficult relationship with service and by extension our relation to others."
When nerves are frayed and as an hotelier you have to deal with the next arrival of problem tourists, just remember it's not them but science to blame.
They're far more agreeable when they are at home. Too right.
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