While global tourism was one of the biggest casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic, the floodgates have since reopened, transforming a trickle of travelers into a straight-up blast. After being penned up for a couple of years, visitors poured forth in a frenzied rush to popular destinations such as Western Europe, Thailand, Japan, mobbing the famous sites while also injecting welcome piles of cash into the local economies.
But mass tourism is indeed a two-edged blade, and with the shot to the wallet also comes the inevitable headache of noise, crowds, litter, and perhaps the most dreaded drawback of all: bad behavior.
The latter hit a fever pitch last summer with a spate of high-profile incidents: A tourist in Rome was caught on video nonchalantly wading through the pool of the famed Trevi Fountain just to fill her water bottle at one of the spouts, while—during an attempt to shoot selfies—a group of young visitors also knocked over a statue worth €200,000 in an Italian village.
This comes in the wake of other travelers misbehaving, including a spate of flagrant name carvings at iconic monuments such as the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the wooden pillar of a Japanese Buddhist temple built in 759 AD.
If you’re foolish enough to look at the comments sections of any of the articles covering these incidents, you’d be liable to jump to one conclusion.
“Must have been an American.”
“Of course he was American.”
“American, for sure.”
Comment after comment points the finger towards tourists from the US, which are then liked and confirmed many times over, despite the fact that in each instance listed above, no American1 was involved in the idiocy. In fact, the fountain-wader was Spanish and the statue-destroyers German, while the name-carvers were British, French, and Canadian, respectively. Still, that didn’t stop so many from just assuming and then propagating the notion that Americans are the worst travelers out there.
This idea is often perpetuated by Americans themselves, even at the highest levels of media. In a New York Times piece about an Italian vigilante who publicly calls out pickpockets, writer Madison Malone Kircher attempts to conclude the interview with this loaded question: “Tourists, particularly American tourists, don’t have the best reputation. Why defend them?”
Are we really that bad? Do Americans transform into clueless, entitled oafs the moment we head abroad? Or is this a stereotype that—while true at times—is largely based on the behavior of a bygone era, kept alive solely out of the need for some to maintain and assert their sense of superiority?
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The term “Ugly American” was popularized by the 1958 book, The Ugly American, by Euguene Burdick and William Lederer. While the novel concerns itself with the failure of the American diplomatic corps in Southeast Asia during the 50’s, the phrase outgrew the book and came to represent all the repulsive traits Americans exhibited outside of our homeland: arrogance, ignorance, entitlement, ethnocentrism, loudness, and lack of respect for the local culture, which almost always included refusal to learn the language.
Even though the “Ugly American” in the novel is thoughtful and considerate of local sensibilities (his ugliness is purely physical), the Ugly American as a trope came to be known as a person ugly in spirit and, most notably, behavior.
While much of the world lay in ruin in the wake of World War Two, the United States emerged virtually unscathed; we were the sole superpower, and for a good decade most of the globe was our playground. Large numbers of Americans suddenly found themselves abroad working for the military or government (with generous stipends) in an attempt to manage and control these vast lands now in our sphere of influence, while normal citizens, flush with dollars, could take advantage of the era of air travel to see the world.
Europe saw the brunt of this new tourism, hosting waves of cash-rich Americans while literally rebuilding their cities. In places like France and Italy the locals were desperate for dollars and the Americans happy to oblige them. That said, many of these Yanks had never before even left their home state, let alone the country.
These were often not very educated or worldly people who also lacked any real appreciation for other ways of doing things. Combine this ignorance with the sense of entitlement that pockets full of money, hungry locals, and being on the winning end of a global war can bring about, and I’m sure you had a lot of appalling behavior.
This goes the same for military and government functionaries living in places like the Philippines, Japan, or Panama. They largely sequestered themselves from the local population and, when they did interact, treated them like servants, no different than say, the British had done in India or Malaysia during their imperial heyday. This sort of cavalier obliviousness surely did little to engender the goodwill of the locals and ended up undermining the US’s efforts in the Cold War, just as described The Ugly American novel.
What’s clear is that even though “we” won World War Two, Americans’ behavior in the ensuing years succeeded in alienating many of the people who could have otherwise been on our side. We were drunk on power, and it showed. The question is, has that changed?
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“Ugly American” is a phrase that conjures an image so specific that it could come from Central Casting: Usually white and always fat, he wears a baseball cap, shorts (or these days sweats), and high white socks with sneakers or even worse: sandals. The same character will also sport loud Hawaiian shirts or baggy hoodies advertising his favorite NFL or college football team, and in the days before smartphones, always clutched a wrinkled map while wandering lost among the wide plazas and serpentine streets so incomprehensible to his Pepsi-soaked brain
As for behavior, the ugly American is loud—bellowing in flat, inelegant English to his family, compatriots, and any unfortunate locals. He demands ice in his drinks along with special changes and substitutions when ordering in a restaurant, though most of the time he and his tubby family just waddle over to McDonald’s, if there is one to be found. He has no sense of decorum or shame—not to mention history or culture—and asks obvious, moronic questions that could have been answered on his own with just a modicum of research before he set off.
Worst of all, when in Europe, he claims the nationality of the country he visits, while knowing virtually nothing of the place. He is “Irish” because his great-great-great uncle emigrated from there during the famine, though he doesn’t even know the man’s name. And when the locals rib him for his fact-free bloviation, he’s too witless to even realize he’s being mocked. He just smiles along, acting like he’s in on the joke for which acts as the punchline.
I’m doing nothing but regurgitating the details of a caricature here, a stereotype—like any—seared into my consciousness through movies, books, TV, and other media. However, despite my intimacy with the subject, the fact remains that I’ve never really come across this person in real life, despite widespread travels and nearly two decades abroad. I’ve certainly met and taken in people who exhibit aspects of this trope, and I’m not arguing that these types of Americans don’t exist. It’s just that I keep seeing people refer to this person as if I could easily encounter him anywhere outside of the warm embrace of the USA.
To be honest, when it comes to witnessing bad behavior, non-Americans take the gold, at least in my experience. I once saw an emaciated, chain-smoking Frenchman throw his plate across the table at his Vietnamese server exclaiming, “I have waited one hour for zis shit food!” I’ve watched Russians walking down the street in their underwear and smoking in the swimming pool. I’ve seen Brits drink themselves psychotic and whip out their dicks before exchanging blows, and busloads of shrieking Chinese trampling the temples at Angkor as if it was their own personal amusement park.
These are just a few examples. If you doubt my perspective, ask the locals. Filipinos in Manila and Cebu will surely list Koreans as their least favorite visitors, while Israelis top the charts elsewhere. Russians are loathed in northern Europe, while loutish Brits on booze-fueled stag and hen weekend benders have made them unwelcome throughout much of the Continent. Same goes for clueless, half-naked young Aussies in Bali.
The Chinese, however, just may take the cake. They have done themselves no favors with all sorts of shocking incidents, including the destruction of artwork in Europe, laying waste to the all-you-can-eat shrimp buffet in Thailand, and that time a mom allowed her kid to take a dump on a newspaper spread out over the seat in an airplane.
I don’t say this to hate on the Chinese (I’ve traveled there and the people were lovely), but rather point out that—flush with cash and shiny passports—they are, in a sense, the new Ugly Americans.
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It’s fair to point out that when it comes to my anecdotal experience, I haven’t spent much time nor traveled extensively in Europe, where many cases of Ugly Americanism seem to spring from. Given the fact that—aside from our North American neighbors—Europe sees the greatest amount of American travelers, it would make sense that they also get their fare share of shitheads. That said, our tendency to tip well tends to makes them tolerate our intrusions more than they otherwise be inclined to.
I have, however, journeyed all over Mexico, and while I avoided the places where large numbers of my countrymen were likely to gather, graze, and act the fool (Cancun and Puerto Vallarta come to mind), the Americans I came across in cultural centers like CDMX, Guanajuato, and Oaxaca were on the whole quiet, thoughtful and respectful. Many of them were middle-aged and older and gave off heavy, NPR-listening retired teacher vibes. Enthusiastic Obama voters. Probably have pet golden retrievers and drive Subaru Outbacks back in Portland, Oregon or Portland, Maine.
This has also been my experience in much of Asia—especially China and Japan. In addition, I’ve run into plenty of young American backpackers, though compared to Euros and Aussies, we Yanks are in the minority. This is probably a good thing, as making it across the Pacific is a big leap to begin with, so the act filters out some of the worst, leaving us with good heads. At the risk of outright snobbery, my suspicion is that the closer you get to the motherland, the worse the quality of travelers. I bet you could construct a math formula that proves this straight out.
That said, all of the Americans I’ve met in Asia haven’t been golden. I once shared a guesthouse in the Philippines with a wild family from deep Texas whose perpetually-shirtless, chain-smoking, beer-swilling patriarch (named “Bud”) bragged about banging prostitutes in the same bed with his 21-year-old son. When footage of Venus Williams flashed across the TV in the hostel bar, Bud leapt to his feet and proclaimed, “She’s got legs just how I like ‘em. Feet on one end and pussy on the other!”
The Euro travelers sharing the space were at once appalled and intrigued. I suppose Bud was in some ways as “ugly” as an American can get, but he was also gregarious and wildly entertaining, so perhaps he got a pass. He certainly did from me.
In the end, do I protest too much? Am I denying the fact that I’m—at least in some ways—an Ugly American myself?
Okay, sure. Mea culpa. I’ve definitely been guilty of arrogance and brash outbursts during my time overseas, and yes, I’m also very loud. Many of us indeed are, so why should I care if some people feel the need to point it out and exaggerate it for effect online?
After all, shitting on Americans has become an internet pastime, which is probably just a reflection of long-held grudges and grumblings that we weren’t privy to before Facebook comments were invented. I have long held onto the belief that while plenty of people may hate Americans, most have the courtesy to hate us behind our backs.
Still, the reputation remains, kept alive by some of us, and others who may have a stake in it. Russian troll farms? Or just the universe correcting itself? After all, we are the big boys on the block and a target-rich environment. Enduring the constant pot shots is just part of the gig.
I’ve gotten used to it, though the assumption that you’re probably a dumb-dumb based on the passport you hold does get old after a while. I remember sitting down with a couple of Europeans in Saigon some years back, talking history and politics over cold 333 beers, only to have one of them say: “Wow. You’re pretty smart for an American!”
For an American. What was he expecting, Yosemite Sam?
So, while I think it’s beyond time that we put this dated and played-out caricature of the Ugly American to bed, it still lives, whatever my view on the matter. And maybe there is an upside. Perhaps it’s useful to travel with the knowledge that some people will automatically underestimate you, ‘a la Lieutenant Columbo. I mean, he always solved the case, didn’t he?
And even if I have to endure an national bad rep abroad, it could be worse: I could travel under the dopey delusion that everyone everywhere automatically loves me because of where I’m from. I mean, I could be Canadian2, and that’s a thought that makes my blood run cold.
By “American,” I’m referring specifically to people from the United States. I realize that America includes both the continents of North and South America, and that American in the big sense refers to anyone one that lives there. That said, while Spanish has the very useful word of estadounidense for someone from the US, we don’t really have the equivalent in English. Until we can normalize the use of “United Stateser” or “United Statesian,” we’re stuck with “American.”
My grandfather was Canadian, born in Alberta, so I guess that makes me a quarter.
Love seeing a deep dive on this. I've always thought this concept was a little dubious - it seemed too predictable, cartoonish, judgmental. But I wrote off my doubts as a side-effect of my own American ignorance of the cultural superiority of the rest of the world. Today the image of the boorish American compared to his sophisticated (especially European) non-US counterparts is surely nothing more than pre-Woke nonsense, what they used to call "liberal elitism", and yeah, I ain't havin it.
As you say, "speaking the language" was always the centerpiece of the "shitty American tourist" complaint, and for my money that complaint is immediately torn down by the swaths of Asian immigrants (largely Vietnamese and Chinese) living in my city who never learn more than a word or two of English, and muddle their way through the world demanding locals struggle to understand those one or two words combined with some poor pantomime, or demand to have a translator provided for them. And I'm not talking about tourists - these people live here.
I think the core issue here is: responsibility to create the world one inhabits. When we go to a restaurant, a hotel, a theme park... we're paying for someone else to create the "world". Disneyland is what it is because someone else is making it that way - you simply pay your fee and enjoy it. But when we visit a city, any public place, really, and particularly when we go to live in a place - it is we who collectively make that place what it is. Our presence, our interaction, our behavior, is a crucial part of the experience of being there. We *are* the "there", in many ways. This "ugly American" is the person who doesn't know that, who thinks that anywhere they go outside of the home is Disneyland - created and maintained by someone else for their personal enjoyment.
This is what killed my city, and probably other cities that gain some cultural popularity. People hear about it and read about, then come to live so they can experience what they read about. But what they read about was created and maintained by the residents, not simply attended and enjoyed - ten or twenty thousand people move in to simply enjoy that world, well now you've got a whole bunch of people living there who aren't creating it anymore, and it's gone. It's a city inhabited by its own tourists, waiting to be provided for.
Really enjoyed this! I think you hit on why it stick as a reputation - that sometimes, inadvertantly, the Americans are those that you hear! I'm a Brit and we're absolutely terrible travellers by reputation, stag do's, binge drinkers, the lot. But those of us that aren't those aren't as noticeable. But I completely agree that I think there's just a composite ugly traveller - and they can be very much any nationality.