Dutch capital’s bid to deter ‘messy’ tourists comes amid international efforts to limit cheap tourism
A new campaign warning British tourists seeking “messy” weekends in Amsterdam to stay away has cast a fresh spotlight on the reputation of UK travellers abroad.
People in Britain who use search phrases such as “stag party Amsterdam” will be targeted with pop-up videos warning of the consequences of getting drunk and rowdy in the Dutch capital.
The videos show “young men staggering in the street, being handcuffed and finger-printed and having their mugshots taken”, said The Independent, and outline “the risks and consequences of excessive drug and alcohol consumption: fines, hospitalisation, a criminal record and permanent health damage”.
‘An unhealthy relationship with alcohol’
According to a recent survey of tourism offices in popular holiday destinations, British tourists are regarded as the worst travellers, and Germans as the best.
Online travel company Expedia quizzed tourist offices in 17 national and international holiday destinations – which did not include Amsterdam – and found that Brits were “at the bottom of the table of the 24 most liked and disliked nationalities”.
But are Brits abroad “really that bad?” asked British journalist Julia Buckely on CNN. “Or do people just love to hate the English?”
London-based psychotherapist Andy Cottom believes the main problem is the nation’s “very unhealthy relationship with alcohol”.
“For some reason, continental Europeans have a better understanding of what it can do,” Cotton told the broadcaster. “I’ve seen Germans similarly drunk, but very rarely French, Italians, Spanish or Portuguese. They don’t seem to destroy themselves quite so regularly.”
That view was challenged by Tom Jenkins, the CEO of the European Tourism Organisation, who argued that “everyone is perfectly capable of behaving disgracefully”.
“If you’re talking about public drunkenness, I think go to Scandinavia and you’d be surprised by what they manage to achieve,” said the trade body chief. “Have you ever hung out at Oktoberfest? Northeastern Europeans and Russians get drunk under the table.”
‘Class snobbery’
The Dutch capital’s online campaign comes amid a worldwide push to limit “excessive tourism”.
The director of tourism for Mallorca, Lucia Escribano, recently declared that the Balearic island was “not interested in having budget tourists from the UK”.
Efforts by resort towns such as Magaluf to rebrand as upmarket holiday destinations spell “the end of cheap Balearic holidays for Britons”, warned Spain-based journalist Graham Keeley on the i news site. Following investment by tourism companies, hotel rooms on the seafront of what was once known as “Shagaluf” have risen from about €40 (£35) per night to “closer to” €400 (£350).
Macia Blazquez, a professor of geography at the Balearic Islands University, told the paper that such changes were part of “a process of segregation, expulsion, even criminalisation of cheap tourism”.
According to travel writer Anthony Peregrine, criticising “budget” sunseekers is “a coded way of distancing oneself from the ‘uncultured’ classes” that “stinks” of “snobbery”.
And a “surprising number” of the commenters who have “pulled in behind Spanish officialdom, expressing profound distaste for British tourists”, are doing so “from within Britain itself”, he wrote for The Telegraph. “‘Keep yobbish Brits at a distance’, has been the general tone.”
Brits abroad face the double whammy of not only their reputation abroad but also the stigma they face at home, but “really, it’s time we got a grip”, argued Languedoc-based Peregrine. The French “don’t conduct this sort of national self-loathing”, he added. “They’re too busy meeting up – in Spain, Italy, Florida, Indonesia – to discuss and judge the other country relative to France.”
And “we should maybe follow suit”, because “Britons on holiday (when not spouting rubbish about avoiding other Britons) are usually great”.
