Tourism workers often see a side of visitors that friends and relatives back home may never encounter. Guides watch how guests respond when an animal fails to appear, hotel employees handle unexpected requests, and drivers manage delays that can disrupt carefully planned itineraries. These interactions shape how tourism professionals perceive people from different countries, although cultural expectations can influence what they consider polite, generous, or adventurous. A new survey has attempted to capture those impressions by questioning tour operators who work with international clients.
According to Euronews, SafariBookings.com, an online marketplace for African safari tours, asked 192 tour operators about five aspects of tourist behavior. The questions covered politeness, tipping, spending, interest in food, and willingness to pursue active or adventurous experiences. The findings show how the participating operators view their customers, but they do not measure the behavior of entire national populations.
Japan Leads The Ranking For Travel Manners
Among the 192 operators surveyed, 21.1% selected Japanese visitors when asked which nationality they considered the most polite. Norway placed second with 10.6% of responses, followed closely by Switzerland with 10.4%. Canadian tourists placed fourth with 9.2%, and American tourists completed the top five with 8.7%, as detailed in the fuller results published by TravelPulse Canada.
At the bottom of the politeness ranking, Italy received 1.3% of mentions. That result does not mean the remaining respondents considered Italian tourists impolite. It means fewer operators selected Italy when asked to name the nationality with the best manners. The survey asked participants to identify a leading nationality rather than rate every country as either polite or impolite.
Responses from individual operators also showed that good travel manners can involve more than courtesy. One representative of Imara Tours Zanzibar praised European guests for asking detailed questions about animals and conservation, saying their curiosity made game drives more engaging. SafariBookings representative Anita Kovalevska highlighted the differences across the five categories.
“What stands out in these results is how different nationalities lead in different areas,” she said, as quoted by TravelPulse Canada.
Tipping, Spending, Adventure, And Food Produce Different Leaders
Financial habits produced the strongest results for the United States. American visitors received 29.5% of mentions in the tipping category, followed by Germany with 13.1%, Canada with 10%, and Switzerland with 8.6%. The United States also led the spending ranking with 24% of responses. Germany and Canada tied for second, each at 12.8%.
When operators considered which tourists were the most active and adventurous, Germany moved into first place with 21.1%. France followed with 17.8%, while the Netherlands received 11%. At the lower end of the ranking, British and Indian visitors each received 4.5%, and Spanish visitors received 4.3%. The survey recorded operators’ impressions rather than counting the activities completed by their clients.
The survey’s final question asked operators which nationality they considered the “biggest foodie.” India led with 18.7% of responses, followed by Japan with 17.5%. France placed third with 12.4%, narrowly ahead of China at 12.3%. The Netherlands finished fifth with 7.7%, only 0.1 percentage point ahead of Italy in sixth. The survey did not define “foodie” or measure specific dining habits, so the results reflect the operators’ general impressions of their guests’ interest in food.
