“The Smartest Bear And The Dumbest Tourist Overlap More Than You Think” – 17 Annoying Tourist Behaviours From Specific Countries
by Benjamin Dzialdowski · BuzzFeedRecently, Th3_Accountant asked r/AskTheWorld, "What is something that tourists do in your country that annoys the locals?" And we thought we'd share some of the best responses.
1. "In the Netherlands, it's not allowed to walk into the tulip fields."
"Yet, you always find tourists who don't care and just want a cool picture for social media. The farmers don't get paid for you being there, and tourists damage the crops. Every year around this time, it's a recurring topic that farmers want to put a fence around their field and keep tourists away."
2. [Thailand] "Buying properties because our government are fed their grey-business money and raise the value beyond what the majority of locals can afford."
3. [Norway] "Driving slow on the road to see the scenery, creating queues and traffic jams while driving into small Norwegian towns with tour buses, RVs, etc. that are not designed for that amount of tourists."
"Lack of public toilets has also made people poop on people's private property. While heard stories from Stavanger where tourists went into people's private homes because they thought it looked like a museum."
4. [Philippines] "Poverty porn. Going to slums and then filming people there like they're on safari."
5. [Portugal] "Stealing tiles."
"Some people are calling me out, saying that locals also steal them to sell on black markets to unsuspecting tourists. Yes, I think it's true. So if you see them on black markets, do not buy them, especially if you see cement remains on the back. You can buy them at National Tile Museum (Museu Nacional do Azulejo), Fábrica Sant'Anna, Cortiço e Netos, etc."
6. [Canada] "Idiots getting out of their cars to take pictures and pester (especially dangerous) wildlife. The 10 days I spent in Alberta, I witnessed this multiple times, one of which was a big ol' brown bear."
7. [Australia] "This one is quite specific not just to my state, but to one tiny little island off the coast: Please don’t bother the quokkas."
"There was a video circulating on TikTok with a tourist 'rescuing' a fairy penguin, which she thought was a 'baby penguin'. It was in shallow waters of a beach and looked perfectly fine.
I mentioned in the comments that you shouldn't touch or muck with wildlife unless you're a professional, and was royally shot down.
All the comments were along the lines of 'good on you for rescuing this little baby!' Ugh."
8. [New Zealand] "Underestimating our forests, hiking/tramping, and Mother Nature in general, and then ending up requiring massive resources to rescue them all because they weren't prepared or thought they were a lot more capable than they are."
9. [Spain] "Being noisy and uncivilised while drunk."
10. [Switzerland] "Of course, this is just one region and not representative of all of Switzerland and all tourists, but it caused quite an outcry."
"Lauterbrunnen is suffering from severe over-tourism, which has led to tourists crossing boundaries in unacceptable ways, including trespassing, walking over private property, playing football in cemeteries, and public urination! I mean… what the hell is wrong with people to behave like that? It honestly makes me furious."
11. [Germany] "Treating KZs [Konzentrationslager, concentration camp] like they're Disneyland."
"Dudes proposing to their girlfriends on railroad tracks outside Auschwitz and posting it on socials. I have seen it with my own eyes. Unreal shit."
12. [USA] "In Yellowstone National Park, the tourists walk up to wild bison and try to take selfies with them. Then they get surprised when the bison attack them."
"Best quote from a park ranger was about trash can designs: 'It's so hard to design a trashcan for national parks because the smartest bear and the dumbest tourist overlap more than you think.'"
13. [Brazil] "Those favela tours. So many other things you can do here to 'get inspired' and 'see how the locals really live' other than riding past us and looking at us like we’re a zoo exhibit."
14. [Czechia] "Putting love locks on bridges in the capital."
15. [UK] "Acting like the guards in front of Buckingham Palace are a tourist attraction."
16. [India] "The ones who film funerals and cremations. They just swarm around as if it is a zoo attraction."
17. [Scotland] "Pretend they're Scottish. Just because your 10x great grandad was put on a penal transport to the colonies for being caught fucking cattle doesn't make you in any way Scottish."
H/T to Th3_Accountant and r/AskTheWorld for having the discussion!
Any of your own to add? Let us know in the comments below!
Additional thumbnail credits: Entertainment Film Distributors, Universal Pictures