Internet divided over viral video shaming tourists

This is the contentious tourist debate blowing up the internet right now.

A group of tourists have been shamed in a video posted online for ignoring danger signs when visiting Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, news.com.au reports.

The tourists, who were from Thailand, were caught walking through a "fragile thermal area" of the park, where a hot spring lay, despite a "danger" sign asking visitors not to enter the area.

It is clear the tourists do not speak or understand English fluently - and to be fair, the sign is also quite inconspicuous - but a US man, who claimed to be leading a group of guests from South America on a tour in the area, filmed and posted a video confronting the group.

The video has gone viral and has been viewed almost 400,000 times at the time of writing and had attracted more than 1000 comments, with strong opinion about who has behaved badly.

In the clip, the man says he was filming the incident because it was "illegal" and he wanted to turn the group into park police.

He can be heard yelling "Hey! Get out of there!" before showing one of the women the danger sign. The woman giggles and then apologises.

The sign in question. Photo / YouTube

The man then gets into a clash with one of the males in the group, who tries to get him to stop filming and asks him to "please delete [the footage]".

In a message he added at the end of the footage posted on YouTube, the tour guide said he eventually found a park officer, who alerted the park police. He said he then posted the video online in an attempt to educate tourists.

"Even though I received threats from the Asian group regarding this video, I am posting for education and hopefully some good comes from it," he wrote.

"I am thankful that no-one got hurt, burned, or fell through."

But the internet is divided on who is really in the wrong - is it the tourists for being ignorant of their surroundings, or is it the man for being so quick to judge without actually being willing to help?

Some commenters criticised the group of tourists for being so reckless.

"Just because your (sic) from another country doesn't mean you ignorant to your surroundings," one commenter wrote.

"Those spoiled kids needs to know that when you are in a foreign country, you have to follow the law of the country," another comment read.

One said that although the sign seen in the video is small, it's no excuse.

"There are signs everywhere. Everyone is handed material upon entering with signs in multiple languages."

The video has quickly gone viral and the internet is divided. Photo / YouTube

But on the other side of the argument, there was criticism of the tour guide for having such a lack of empathy.

"People make mistakes especially in unfamiliar territory. Go over to them and educate. Instead you have to embarrass them online," one commenter argued.

"It may have been helpful if you told them the reasons why they are not supposed to be there, instead of just being a d*** and shouting, 'get out of there!'" another wrote.

Others argued that the reaction was appropriate due to the danger the tourists were putting themselves in.

"People have been boiled alive and literally dissolved completely in those pools. Why are people acting like this guy is an a******. He made them follow park rules and could have saved a life or two."

Another wrote: "Not only is it damaging to the ecosystem to wander off the trails at Yellowstone, it's actually extremely dangerous. Many of the geothermal features contain boiling water and are loaded with toxic chemicals like arsenic and lead ... What looks like solid ground is sometimes a thin crust of mineral build-up that will buckle under your weight and cause you to go splashing down into the boiling pools! For the love of god do NOT go off the marked paths at Yellowstone!"

According to a Yellowstone National Park travel guides website, there have been "many injuries and deaths" surrounding the thermal features - or hot springs - in the park.

It warns visitors to be "extremely cautious" in thermal areas "due to thin and fragile crusts overlying boiling water".

In an interview with Thai Channel 3, the woman from the video defended her actions.

"Had I broken a rule, I would have been given a warning from park officials," she said.

She believed if tourists were not supposed to have been in the area there would have been bigger warning sign and it would have been fenced off.

But according to another Yellowstone Park travel guide website, that's not necessarily the case.

"Park managers have installed guard rails near some features, but they walk a fine line between giving visitors a chance to get close to popular attractions and ruining the natural landscapes that national parks were created to preserve."