Common Ways Tourists Are Offensive In Foreign Countries Analysis

“The world of the tourist and the world of everyone else. Often they 're side by side. But the tourist doesn 't actually see how people live.”- Paul Theroux

Travel is something that is very familiar to most Americans. In 2015, approximately 73,453,114 Americans traveled to Europe, Asia, Caribbean, Middle East and Africa (LaGrave). The word travel implies a taking a journey, exploring a new place and experiencing new things. Oxford English Dictionary defines travel as, “To make a journey; to go from one place to another; to journey” (travel, v.). To many individuals, traveling helps one grow physically, emotionally and spiritually. Depending on the destination one chooses, their journey will be different. When traveling, there are two different …show more content…
We Americans see people from different countries who have different life practices, they typically question their behavior. Something that may be common in the France is offensive in the United States. Often time, these differences are overlooked, but sometimes these differences can be offensive and depict a poor view of a culture. Meltzer discusses how gestures and norms in the United States are very offensive in other countries and portray tourist in a more negative light. Norms are things that are standard for a culture. When individuals from the United States travel, they often do not think of how their actions can cause consequences in foreign countries, and can cause a generalization of the entire population of people. Something as simple as the “ok” hand gesture can offend the entire Brazilian population (Meltzer). Individuals get labeled as a tourist to a greater degree when they are not considerate of the culture of the native people. Another common practice for Americans that is labeled as offensive is tipping at restaurants. Typically in other countries, servers are paid more than American servers and they take pride in the pay, and tipping is seen as an insult. In the United States, if one does not tip they are seen as rude and cheap. In the case of an individual visiting the United States for the first time, they may not know they need to tip and when they do not tip there is a negative portrayal of their culture. It is baffling that a simple act can label an individual and create a different perception of a culture. As careful as one may be, they may never truly understand all the norms of the culture. Both travelers and tourist may struggle with the difference in norms and gestures because they vary and may be unknown to all except