Well technically this article is older than today, but I only found it today and since this is my blog it's MY surprise of the day. SF Gate's Article on some German Expedia survey. Apparently the German branch of Expedia.com surveyed 1500 European hotel managers and came up with some interesting results. I'll compile a few results here, but there are more in the article. I suppose there's no link to the actual Expedia survey results because either (a) it's in freaky-deaky Deutsch, or (b) SF Gate's editorial staff doesn't feel the need to include primary sources.
1. Americans are regarded as the second-best tourists overall, behind the Japanese. The worst tourists overall are the French, with Indians the second-worst and Chinese the third-worst.
2. Americans are the best tippers by far, and the Germans are the stingiest.
3. Americans are the most interested in trying new foods; Chinese the least.
4. Americans are the most likely to try to speak a foreign language (surprise!); the French the least.
Less glowingly:
5. Americans are the "shabbiest" dressers (what a quaint word) by far, while the Italians are the snazziest. I guess this makes sense since I tend to favor t-shirts and shorts.
6. Americans are the most likely to complain.
7. Americans are the second noisiest, following the Italians.
Other notables: Russians are rudest; Japanese are "best behaved" and "most polite."
