Holidays in the sun - what is wrong with that

[mids2019]

I was listening to some radio piece about residents in a Spanish island wanting fewer UK tourists. There was a girly middle class commentator on this story supporting the islanders claiming British tourists are awful, wanting just to drink and eat bad food, dressing inapproriately,, drinking to much and being leary. All the Brit abroad sterotypes.

However I feel there is a large amount of class.snobbery here and a lot of families just want a week or two somewhere hot, have a few beers, relax and try and get a tan. Some of us don't want a.cultured or stressful holiday and I am very much each to his own on this.
As long as there isn't any breaking of laws I think we shouldn't be ashamed of breaks to the costs del sol etc.

Prices in the UK are extortionate and our weather is miserable. Viva Espagna!

It's not about snobbery or cultured holiday vs sun holiday. It's about behaviour. Drunken,loud,aggressive,offensive behaviour.

I'll be honest I have no idea if Brits are the worst for it, or what percentage of Brits do it, whether it's singles rather than families, certain areas etc. I do know there's a reputation, no idea if it's well earned or not.

Locals however, are perfectly entitled to complain if it is an issue , and I seriously doubt they're simply complaining that the tourists spend their whole time on a sun lounger and in the pool.

I agree with this. You can do a version of "all inclusive" that includes all food and snacks and maybe three drinks a day. As long as it's priced correctly it's fine. It will discourage people from going mad

In a discussion yesterday about what to wear on an early morning flight and a woman said she wears pyjamas over her bikini. I thought how disrespectful to show up to another country in your pyjamas.

Good grief.

@EmpressOfTheThread "How would you differentiate, then?
How would you decide who is a nice British bloke, or a loud one with his belly out?"

Probably by.. using eyes and ears? One's behaving like a nice bloke, and one's being loud with his belly out where he's not supposed to have it out.

It's not about the wrong sort of person, it's about the wrong sort of behaviour.

People do complain about Chinese tourists in Asian countries. If there are individuals behaving obnoxiously in isolation then people complain about that individual, if there is a noticeable and repeated behaviour by a nationality, even if it's a minority of the visiting nationality, then the locals get fed up and blame that nationality.

My ex au pair who is Spanish and lives in Dublin complains about the Spanish and Italian teenagers who come over to learn English and travel in massive noisy groups taking over the entire pavement. It's about repeated inconvenience and annoyance in daily life.

I think the Spanish authorities need to step in and regulate the bars that actively encourage the people who give tourism a bad name. Here in Portugal there's lot of UK tourists but - apart from a small part of Albufeira - there's not the set up that allows people to behave in the same way they do on a Saturday night in the UK, but from 9am and at a much lower cost. Start by whacking the tax up so that a pint is €7 and a cocktail €15...

If you read the local papers, it isn’t just British tourists being singled out. It is British newspapers reporting that they don’t want Brits and ignoring the fact that they aren’t too happy with Germans (for example) either.

Those who think it's only Brits have managed to avoid Arenal in Majorca. Drunken groups of young Germans swaying along from bar to bar, wearing football or stag/hen t- shirts. They also take portable speakers and seem to play German oom-pah style drinking songs. I've no idea what it's like later at night, but I've seen the aftermath of fights at 730pm with police presence notable.

It's v odd - playa de Palma has many nationalities including Spanish and then suddenly as you walk along the front, the signs become German.

I don't think it's all inclusive that is the main problem. I've been to many at different price point and not once seen overt drunkenness or bad behaviour although I'm sure folk were above the drink driving limit. I think it's large groups going from bar to bar that cause problems in general.

Well putting your shirt on to go into a restaurant is a very low expectation tbf

Mallorca has always been very German-centric. Hence Majorca. We used to go there in the 90s when our kids were small, and all the signs were in German.
I used to speak German to the waiters and bar staff who didn't understand English.

Possibly not. However, I have heard them being moaned about in other Asian countries though. Rude and noisy, apparently.

Why should prices go up for the locals because Brits can't control their drinking?

Its highly unusual to see. Spanish people drunk

I have friends whose children work in high end hotels on the Costa del Sol. I can assure you it's not just Brits who can behave badly on holiday. Germans, Dutch, Russians and plenty more all have their moments.

I lived in Tenerife for many years.

Drunken nights out can be a problem. People spewing on streets and fights etc. But on the other hand they encouraged this with their flyers and people on the streets encouraging people in on offers of cheap booze and a great night out. See below but I'll also make reference to who owned these businesses.

This was mainly confined to "The strip"

Elsewhere on other resorts it wasn't so much of a problem. But they rely on tourism for income so they'd have to really encourage people they do want if they don't want the young people (from all countries) and their money via alcohol.

Likewise Spain. I've travelled to all sorts of Spanish tourist resorts. None of the ones I've been to have experienced awful behaviour by Brits. But I avoid resorts "known" to be attractive for partying British abroad.

Yes - the clothing is an issue. But I think that's cultural. We had a sunny day here a few weeks ago and suddenly there was an abundance of barely there boob tubes with badly fitted bras underneath everywhere. I think the difference is as much as people have a right to dress how they want when they want there is a limit to people walking around supermarkets in bikinis and a sarong dripping in suncream and sweat. It's unhygienic and it's the one thing I hated when living abroad despite not living in a drunken touristy area - it's just people did it because it's hot.
There no reason not to put on shorts and a vest or a summer dress when going into shops and restaurants.

I personally think it goes much deeper. The truth is that most of the places that encourage or experience this behaviour aren't Spanish family owned. They do pay tax in Spain though. Perhaps they want more local money? Money for local business people? And that I can understand.
They just need to hope they get enough tourists that the jobs the locals do remain and local business owners can pick up the slack.

The kind of tourists we're talking about will be more likely to keep to hotel bars and the 'bar strip' places. I'm sure locals don't drink there anyway. Those are the places that need to hike their prices.

Haha.

This is a bit difficult if you are from eg Tenerife.

Chinese tourists have a bad reputation internationally.

https://thediplomat.com/2016/10/why-are-chinese-tourists-so-badly-behaved/

This is exactly what's going on. It's about the impact on their infrastructure as well as the natural environment. The Canaries want a shift to more sustainable tourism. This is in line with many other countries around the world. The days of cheap flights and beer are running out and things will have to change, whether we like it or not.

The right wing press are having a field day with this, trying to imply that Canary Islanders are British hating cretins, biting the (obviously superior) hand that feeds them. Their one dimensional thinking readers are beating their chests as we speak.

There is nothing working with wanting a holiday in sunnier places. What is wrong is treating those who work and live there with a lack of respect, never bothering to speak a word of their language, and being loud/leery especially late at night.

And I agree about the dressing inappropriately, though you just need a day in the UK above 25C to see that, no need to go abroad.

I live in the Caribbean which is a tourist hotspot as well. You notice that lots of tourists seem to forget about common decency once the come holiday here. Shopping and walking around city centre in bikini or without shirts, not knowing traffic rules, stopping in middle on the road when they see flamingo's etc. People here are starting to raise their voice as well, certain beaches nowadays only cater to cruiseschip tourists that only visit the beach for an hour, but best part of beach with shade is blocked for the whole day.

I understand that tourism has been an economic pillar here and have met lovely tourists, but in general it would be nice if tourists check what is usance in their holiday destination and would keep similar boundaries as if at home. If you do not go grocery shopping in a string bikini at home, don't do that as well at holiday.

Need to add, we do not get many UK tourists, but European tourists mainly

My take is if you're going to visit another place/country, then behave properly; respect the locals, respect the environment and respect the culture. I can't even stand loud drunk people in England personally!😂
I can 100% see why the locals you mentioned aren't happy with that type of behaviour, it's disruptive

Sun in the UK…I live in Scotland and we have a completely different climate to the south of England, average summer temperature where I live is about 16C.

If you don’t live in the climate that I live in, you’ll never understand the desire to feel warm sun on your back

What Piano said.

There is a real problem with local Canarian authorities not regulating the impact of tourism, eg on housing costs and water supplies.

Say for example, if hotels/holiday villa companies etc were required to pay for additional water infrastructure, recruit staff locally, pay them a living wage and provide suitable housing for them etc - there might be less resentment if there were real, sustainable and long term benefits for Canarian residents.

Instead there is half built abandoned holiday housing, started in haste by get rich quick developers and a local government either too blind or ignorant or disempowered to stop it happening.

It’s sad as we’re really fond of the Canaries and have been going for years. But we have started to see greater destitution and understandable resentment.

Tourism is unfortunately an important source of income and creates jobs - simply reducing the number of tourists won’t fix the housing problem.

Have you seen the tourists on Horse Guards parade? Touching the horses, pulling their reins, abusing the guards.
The behaviour has got a lot worse.