THE ULTIMATE TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE
The story of the world famous ugly American tourist. We all know him (or her). We’ve all seen him. We all have our stories, both hilarious and appalling. It is an unavoidable stereotype if you are an American. When meeting travelers from countries other than the US, we often received a sideways glance, an odd look, or were viewed with a bit of caution. I could see it in our new acquaintances eyes. They were thinking, “Are these the typical Americans we have always heard of? Are these two going to be loud, obnoxious, and entitled?” While we have no doubt met the ugly American throughout our travels, we have also met the ugly Brit, the ugly Ozzie, the ugly Frenchman, and various other ugly tourists, or as my buddy Matt from Landlopers wrote, the “touron.” I understand some of the hate for American tourists, and as we departed on our year long RTW trip, I was expecting to encounter many of these tourons. Then a funny thing happened. We met a good deal of Americans while on the road, and everyone we met seemed to be on their best behavior. Where was the yelling, the screaming, the obnoxiousness, the demanding? Where was the short temper, the American flag t-shirts, the sense of entitlement? It seemed as though all the Americans we met were acting in the complete opposite manner, trying to put an end to this ugly stereotype. Now I don’t claim to be the most well traveled person around. I was lucky enough to be able to take a year off and travel the world, so that obviously gave me quite a bit of travel experience. But before that, my travel had been limited to a bunch of road trips in my own country, a couple vacations in Mexico (in resort towns for a week), and a quick three week jaunt through Europe. So while I have traveled quite a bit, I don’t have nearly the amount of travel experience that many others have, so maybe my opinions are a bit skewed. We did occasionally notice the ugly American on our trips throughout the US, and we also came across a few in Mexico, but we didn’t really encounter many people from other countries on those trips, so we had no basis of comparison. On our Europe trip and our RTW, we didn’t seem to notice “him” at all. I was left confused, wondering if this stereotype that everyone has bought into, including me, an American, really existed? I never took much offense to this stereotype, probably because I am an American and knew I didn’t act like this, and partly because I was like everyone else, and I assumed most American travelers fit the stereotype. But as our trip wore on, I began to take more offense. We would overhear others speaking of Americans negatively, but it always seemed to be broad generalizations and never personal accounts. Then we began to wonder, is this another of the many stereotypes we encounter that has been overblown? Are we really that bad? Do people from other countries just assume we all act in this stereotypical way without actually giving us a chance? Are other travelers running in to the ugly American as much as we are led to believe? I have no doubt that some travelers out there have encountered the loud, buffoonish, obnoxious American traveler. But I wonder how many have just heard of this behavior without actually encountering it themselves? Are the only unpleasant people you encounter while traveling from the United States? Or are you seeing other ugly travelers as well? While hanging out at a bar in Luang Prabang, Laos while on our trip, we overheard a group of travelers trashing Americans, but in a broad and general way. It really started to bother me, and I should have mosied on over to their table and called them out. Helping tourists grow big balls since, well, I don't know when * Later on that evening, after my balls grew a bit larger with the help of several shots of Lao Lao and countless bottles of Beer Laos, I came right out and asked the group of people we were sitting with (not the same ones who were trashing Americans earlier) their opinions on this matter. Our group consisted of three Americans (including us), a Danish fellow, a few Brits, and a couple Australians. I told them our story about the conversation we overheard earlier, and I asked them point blank if they thought this was true. If they had actually come across the ugly American themselves, or if they thought the stereotype had grown like all stereotypes do, without much justification or personal experience with the behavior that defined said stereotype. The answers were exactly as I had assumed, and I was pleased to hear them. The consensus was that no, most had not encountered this type of behavior from Americans any more so than other nationalities. Our new friend from Denmark, who was very well traveled, said that he thought we did get a bad rap, and while there are some idiots out there who fuel this stereotype, there are plenty of other cultures who misbehave when out on the road.
He claimed that the world needed a scapegoat, and after the previous eight years of horrific foreign policy and a moron for a president, our international image was pretty low. So he thought Americans were all initially viewed in the same way: ignorant, obnoxious, stupid, loudmouths without much culture. It may be unfair, he claimed, but true. The most we could do as Americans was to simply do what we were doing. Get out on the road, meet and befriend others, and prove the stereotypes were just that. I understand that most stereotypes start somewhere and with some amount of truth to them. No one just decided that we were all annoying and arrogant. I also realize that the type of American who travels to developing countries on the cheap is not the same type of person who goes on a Caribbean cruise. There’s probably a much higher chance of encountering this type of behavior on a higher end European trip or a vacation to a resort town, no matter the nationality. I wonder if it’s more of a socioeconomic thing than an American thing? I also wonder how much age has to do with it? No offense to the younger travelers out there, but drunken obnoxiousness seems to be more prevalent amongst the early 20’s crowd. I know we’re not perfect, far from it, but I also know that I have met some downright cool Americans throughout our travels, some who we will remain friends with forever. We have also encountered and befriended some great people from all over the world, but also some we would rather never see again. There are good and bad people everywhere, and I honestly believe there is no more concentration of “morons” here in the US as there are in any other country. It’s true that a good portion of Americans could stand to get out and see more of the world, and many could use some tips as to the proper way to travel in another country. The main problem is that we simply don’t have a culture that puts a premium on international travel, so most are just inexperienced. With all that’s happened over the past several years with the economy and housing crisis, maybe we will start to see a change in priority. Maybe Americans will want to start living their lives a bit more instead of saving everything for the future. This would certainly change our travel habits and hopefully others’ views of us. Am I being too patriotic and naive here? I’d love to hear other’s thoughts on the subject. Have you encountered the ugly American more so than other nationalities? Or is this stereotype overblown? Comment below and let me know what you think. A post by Donovan Green a travel writer and travel blogger. With ticket in hand always ready to travel to new places and discover new things.
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