CF Tourists - is it worse ??

[WeWillLookBack]

We have just got back from a few days in Cornwall - we live in Devon, so spend a lot of time in both counties and are very used to tourists and holiday makers. We stayed in a 'pub with rooms on the beach, which was lovely. However - I am utterly gobsmacked by the level of CF we have witnessed in the 3 days. It feels like peoples entitlement is off the scale. I don't know how those in hospitality are dealing with it.

Wednesday - Woman went mental at the poor young lad serving in the beer garden - insisted she had booked a table outside. Very politely told her that they do not take reservations for the garden, just the restaurant. Screaming ' Are you calling me a liar'. He went in, and didn't come back out.

Friday AM - they serve breakfast for guests 8am-9.30am, then open for breakfast at 9.30am (lots of signs saying open at 9.30am). At 8.30am a group were outside - rattling the door. Member of staff opens the door, and lets them know they open at 9.30am. Lots of moaning - insisting they can have breakfast now etc. She says no - very polite. So he tells her it is disgusting that they allow guests to sit in the window eating when others can't ! ( and to make up for their error, they should serve them breakfast too)

Friday evening - Family of 6 rocked up - no space in the beer garden. Started shouting - so the owner came out. Man very angry - they had driven for 6 hours - and the kids needed feeding. The owner was great - polite but firm. The man actually suggested the owner walk around the beer garden and checked when people were leaving so they could secure a table. He said no. A lot of swearing. Asked to leave.

Drive home Saturday morning. Along a winding road along the coast - car in front just stops. Man gets out and stands looking at the sea. Single lane - so I cant go around him. After a few moments I beep - he stomps over to my car and says 'Can I help you' ... I say you have blocked the road - could you move please. To which he responds 'I am looking at the view - maybe you could just be kind' FFS !!!

Agree. We’ve had the Belligerent Backpacker, the Solo Table for Eight Hogger and I just loved the They Gave Me Their Tiramisu Hoverer ! I can imagine saying “Here, you might as well have my pudding” to someone who was breathing on my food in their haste to bag my table.

Built a lovely house in Cornwall, overlooking village green and onto beach, no dogs allowed on beach so people came from miles around to let their dogs shit all over the place, poo bags chucked in the sand dunes everywhere - reported some and got them fined but it’s like pissing into the wind, couldn’t stand it anymore sold up and moved on - love dogs fucking hate the majority of owners!

I went to hotel school in Europe and then moved back to uk for my first proper jobs in hospitality,I was horrified by the behaviour of the customers in this country. This was in 1999. are they left the UK and went to work in hospitality in Asia and the Middle East for about 20 years and whilst there were some CFs the vast majority were not. I then return to work in the UK in 2014 and was so horrified by some of the CF behaviour that I eventually left the hospitality business. In my experience it is always existed however I think at the moment it is heightened because of the last couple of years of lockdown. I do hope eventually it changes otherwise nobody will want to work in hospitality.

But the reality IS that the English abroad have a stereotype and a bad reputation! And the Scots/Irish less so - I've also been the recipient of many a free drink etc when I've said I'm Scottish not English. And been regaled with tales of English tourists pissing off the locals.

I'm not superior about it, but the fact is many in the tourist industry around the world find the English more rude, entitled and basically ignorant of other cultures than other nationalities. The "why don't they speak English" is a trope based in fact due to behaviour of thousands of tourists. Others may find other nations tourists annoying for other reasons of course, we all think our way of doing things is the best and it rubs people up the wrong way when we don't know the cultural norms.

Perhaps because of our long history of being mistreated by the English, us Celts get better treatment by "the colonies" - using that term wryly - due to mutual sympathy.

But the reality IS that the English abroad have a stereotype and a bad reputation

probably more to do with (some) football fans. I doubt most hospitality staff overseas know the difference between people from the home nations. It's utter nonsense to claim that people who live in England behave worse than people who live elsewhere in the UK. Humans are humans (some barely so, regardless where they come from).

Anyway I'll start saying I am from Scotland and see if I get some free drinks!

That's why when I travel @SleepingAgent I enjoy telling people that I'm English, because I want to show that some (actually quite a lot), of us are decent, polite people and that we don't all require English to be spoken.

Americans have an equally bad reputation and a lot of backpackers used to sew a Canadian flag to their backpacks because of it, but what better way to change the stereotype than to prove it wrong?

My BIL spent some time in a polish hospital. We went out to vist him and the English speaking consultant thought we were Scottish. We are from NE of England.

It depends where you go but I'd agree that most foreigners love the Irish. Except the ones who met my aunt. She was a right cunt.

😆

@gatehouseoffleet definitely worth a shot! 🍺🥂🍷

Anyway, I didn't mean to say that all English people behaved worse - I said the reputation is that - presumably based on the years of bad behaviour of a minority.

Like everything else, they won't remember the 99 nice folk, they'll remember the 1 knobby one. Tis the way.

@holidayelbow
I haven't been rude, I've stated something that has been said to me on numerous occasions, I find you saying 'rude bullshit' to be rude.
Pot, kettle eh?

When we were in an Antwerp bar the locals asked if we were American, when we said no English they kept buying us drinks. Long memories from the war years!!

But the reality IS that the English abroad have a stereotype and a bad reputation

The reality is that English is often used as a broad term to describe anybody from Britain.

@Maverickess goodness me, that’s horrific. It’s hard to imagine what sort of person would be so self absorbed when you’re clearly busy giving someone valuable first aid treatment. And to the leave a poor review about the service? The mind truly boggles!😳

@MsTSwift

I have Japanese friends and family members and they’re unfailingly polite so I find that very sad. I’d have been much less surprised if you’d said she was Korean or Chinese to be honest. My DIL’s mum is Japanese and speaks little English but was treated appallingly by a Chinese waitress in a hotel in Cornwall. (She actually grabbed a piece of breakfast cutlery from A’s hand whilst yelling at her!) I immediately told the waitress off for her dreadful rude behaviour but on reflection, I probably should have also mentioned it to the hotel manager.

@GrumpyMummy123 I think we may live near each other. I parked up to walk my dogs on Friday night and watched a young teenager and her mum (very obvious tourists) follow a small group of ponies around waving a bloody apple and being quite annoyed when the ponies moved to get away from them. I had already witnessed them earlier in the village stood next to one of the bright yellow signs asking them not to feed the ponies trying to feed the ponies grazing next to it. These are the type of idiots who get kicked or bitten and then say it wasn't their fault.

Most people say English to encompass Scottish, Welsh and Irish - people don't care for the difference.

A bit like saying Asian.

Spanish, France, Portugal in my experience.

British people are not often liked abroad.

Some places in the US too.

I completely agree, and in fact I've been at a large table when a group has come in and I've offered to move so they can be seated.

@TSIFT - Most people say English to encompass Scottish, Welsh and Irish - people don't care for the difference.

Eh, no they don't.

Irish are not, not, English or British.

Scottish and Welsh are from Great Britain and therefore British but seriously, go and have a look at yourself for calling or alluding that the Irish are British!

The Chinese and the Korean have some history with the Japanese, so I'm unsurprised there was some tension.

They do. I am Welsh and always get called English. When they mean British

Scottish and Welsh are from Great Britain and therefore British but seriously, go and have a look at yourself for calling or alluding that the Irish are British!

I don’t think the poster was calling or alluding that the Irish are British. Just that people from abroad often get confused by how England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Britain fit together. It’s not that surprising, during the period when the British Empire was expanding fast and had the most influence worldwide, all of them were one sovereign nation.

Add in United Kingdom, British Isles, Northern Ireland and the confusion gets deeper.

@LookItsMeAgain NI is part of the United Kingdom. Many people don't get that there's a difference between GB and UK. It's not unreasonable then that lots make the mistake of calling people from NI British.

@roarfeckingroarr but people from NI are British - we just don’t live in GB. We have / are entitled to British passports and are automatically British citizens. There isn’t a separate NI passport. Although we are also entitled thank god to an Irish passport and EU citizenship!

@LookItsMeAgain

Read my post!

I'm not saying they are.
I'm saying in some countries they don't care for the difference!

For instance my in-laws have houses in Toulon, Marseille, Anercy - people there don't actually care if an Irish person is Irish - Scottish a Scottish - they generically get lumped in as English or British.
If Irish, Scottish person corrects the attitude is a bit like 'yeah, same thing'.
My Spanish and Portuguese friends feel the same.
British holiday makers are generally not liked and they don't mean just English, they can't be bothered to strip the different nationalities out.

In India - you say someone is Scottish, Irish - they don't care they'll still think British/ English.

A bit like in this country where white people don't care for the differences between Indian,Pakistani and Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan despite these groups being racially different too.

your husband sounds like a bully tbh