Brits love Thailand, not really France

by Tom Johansmeyer on

More than a thousand Britons can’t be wrong, right? An online survey of 1,402 of them, by Zoover.co.uk, found France to be the least hospitable vacation destination. But, to be fair, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia weren’t included among the choices. So, it really wasn’t that bad for the folks across the channel. The Brits found that Thailand was the top spot, picking up 25 percent of the vote, with the United States good for 11 percent.

Chrit Blonden, a marketing executive at Zoover, told Reuters, “When you go to France they are not inviting you there, you are not feeling invited when you go to their country,” explaining why the country only picked up 2 percent of the vote in Britain. He continued, “I was in Thailand myself. When you go there you are treated very well…they show a real interest in you.”

The French Tourism Development Agency, of course, had a rejoinder at hand: 78 million tourists from around the world stopped in France last year. Eleven million of them were British. More than 350,000 Brits own a house in France. So, yeah, it looks like there can’t be too much beef.

But, the question the agency forgot to ask all those Brits: are they happy?

Paris most overrated city in the world – Parisians told to start smiling more

by Scott Carmichael on

The poor French just can’t get a break – back in May, their capital was voted “most overrated in the world” by TripAdvisor, and most recently first they were voted “worst tourists in the world“.

Tourism in Paris is down a whopping 17%, and the French Tourism Bureau thinks it might have something to do with the lack of smiling Parisians.

The folks behind the campaign are asking people to put on their happy faces so tourists don’t feel the city is full of rude and obnoxious residents.

To help things along, they have even hired “smile ambassadors” who will be working around the more popular attractions in the city, and will hopefully help brighten up the atmosphere.

To me, the lack of smiles in Paris isn’t as annoying as the attitude from their cab drivers. I suggest Paris starts paying attention to those people instead of telling residents to “smile”.

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