THE new sunday express Voices Pushpesh Pant Ravi Shankar S Vaidhyasubramaniam Anu Aggarwal Debashis Chatterjee Swami Sukhabodhananda MAGAZINE Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment march 23 2025 SUNDAY PAGES 12 The Ugly Indian Tourist Though Indians vacationing abroad do not make the world’s worst travellers, they are damaging the country’s image with boorish behaviour and disregard for local rules and customs UNCOUTH BRIGADE: Videograbs of a group of Indians drinking alcohol and urinating in the open on Thailand’s Pattaya Beach, provoking online backlash against cultural ignorance and disregard for public spaces. A By Tej Prakash Bhardwaj ll it took was one Instagram reel. Earlier in the month, a viral video from Thailand showed scores of ‘desi travellers’ relaxing, drinking alcohol in the open and sleeping on the Pattaya Beach. The caption read, “Indian vibes on Pattaya Beach! Enjoying the sea, and endless fun in Thailand!” The beach, trashed with snack wrappers and beer cans, is no different from any tourist-dense Indian beach. The world is now the desi traveller’s litter bin. The responses to the video were charged with high voltage disgust and shame. One post read, “As a fellow Indian, I feel extremely ashamed and very sad watching this. This kind of behaviour should be punishable.” Another nomad, currently in Pattaya, wrote, “I’m in Pattaya now, visiting from California, and I can confirm this. I thought I was in New Delhi.” Though there is no proof that the boors were exclusively Indian, the video sparked a heated debate online, with ping-pong attacks and counter-attacks by individuals accusing Indians of uncouth behaviour. One heartfelt post read “Not every brown is an Indian.” Nonetheless, the Pattaya video was not the first one to high beam the ugly face of desi travellers. Indian tourists seem to be out with a vengeance to tarnish the country’s image abroad and at home. A Reddit post by an Indian visiting Vietnam revealed he felt a deep sense of “second-hand shame” after witnessing a group of his countrymen being thrown out of a nightclub on Hanoi’s infamous Beer Street. “For every one decent, respectful Indian traveller, there are five who ruin it for everyone else. And guess who gets the heat for it?” he lamented. Another user took it further, “I’ve been solo travelling for almost 15 years now and trust me, our reputation is done. Will take major effort and focus to bring it back even 10 per cent. Most Indians however are arrogant and almost delusional to the point they don’t even realise that their behaviour is shitty .” Last week an Air India flight from Chicago chock full of Indians was forced to turn back mid air. Reason; eight of the 12 toilets onboard were clogged with polythene bags, blankets, innerwear, diapers and waste rags, and even clothes, flushed down the toilets. “Potty training Indian travellers perhaps should be part of visa requirements,” says frequent flyer Prabha Menon from Kochi. Air India has urged passengers “to use lavatories only for the purposes that they are meant for.” The blocked toilets were not all Economy, but Business Class too. The uncouth desi tourist is the new brand ambassador for India abroad. And they aren’t doing Mera Bharat Mahan any favours. However, facts refute this urban myth; Indians are not the worst tourists in the world. The Chinese have topped the list for years in a row. The Chinese government was forced to hand out pamphlets to point out what kind of behaviour is unacceptable in public while travelling, such as defecating on street corners. When in 2013, 15-year-old Ding Jinhao carved his name into Egypt’s Luxor Temple, Chinese tourists became unwelcome in cities from Paris to Phuket. An Expedia Best Tourist Index once named British tourists as the worst behaved in Europe: messy, bad tippers and habitually peevish, and French, miserly American . tourists are infamous for their ignorance and cultural insensitivity, earning the title ‘Ugly Americans’—a Graham Greene novel take off. The British are a different stereotype— after a few drinks, they have been caught streaking through foreign streets. As per the YouGov statistics (2019), Chinese tourists were vastly unpopular in the countries where they make up a large proportion of foreign visitors. Three-quarters of Singaporeans surveyed say Chinese are the worst tourists. In Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, around 40 per cent of locals feel the same. INDIAN SMALL TOWN MONEY POWER IS DRIVING TRAVEL In the late ‘90s and beginning of the 21st century the Indian was a valued , guest in the West. Liberalisation opened up a new alternate job universe, new businesses and multicrore startups creating overnight millionaires. Those were the halcyon days of the Indian economy and the Indian traveller was on a global shopping spree. Indians were a common sight in Paris and Milan designer boutiques, eating in tony restaurants, buying pricey real estate in Mayfair, Dubai and California and flying First or Business Class. Travel re-profiled the penurious Socialist-era bharatiya. The picture is different today with more Indians from small , cities going shopping and partying in South Asian countries. As India’s Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns experience comparatively high economic growth, two distinct generations of travellers are shaping the travel industry According to a report by . capital markets advisory firm EY, “Gen ACE and Gen LUX. Gen ACE, under 40, are adventurous, celebratory and exploratory often travel, , ling with peers and influenced by social media. Gen LUX, over 40, seek luxury uniqueness, and experience, , travelling with family and influenced by offers and vacation schedules.” According to a report jointly prepared by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation and Expedia group, The number of Indian holidaymakers could treble by 2025, of which 40 per cent will be international air trips; Gen ACE makes up the majority This . boom in foreign vacations will be driven by people in Tier-2 cities, which has been experiencing an economic boom. A review of visa trends indicate Tier-2 city tourists prefer going abroad—40 per cent of the total— to domestic travel which the Tier-3 cities traveller likes. On July 22, 2019 business magnate Harsh Goenka tweeted a picture of a notice put up by the manager of the expensive Hotel Arc-en-ciel, in Gstaad, Switzerland to “guests from India”. Among his instructions were, Indians must talk quietly in the corridor and on balconies since there are other guests who like silence, and that items in the breakfast buffet should not be taken away and if they do, the tourist will , animal instincts An Indian man on safari teasing a lion. Videos of other embarrassing and illegal behaviour have gone viral on social media multiple times. have to pay for it. Goenka confessed to feeling “angry humiliated and wanted , to protest” after reading the note, but said,“With India becoming an international power, our tourists are our best global ambassadors …Let’s work on changing our image!” Harjit Singh, Founder and Chief of Guest Experience at Travel Twist, says, “Social media and travel influencers have contributed to the overtourism of many destinations by promoting the idea of cheap, budget-friendly travel. As a result, many travellers now choose Vietnam or Thailand over traditional hotspots like Goa or Kerala attracted by the online buzz. Unfortunately this trend often leads to travel , without regard for local culture or knowledge, with many travelling purely for the status symbol of going abroad.” India’s economic boom has enriched its smaller cities and towns, encouraging the new middle class to spend on branded clothes, even if they are knockoffs, alcohol, clubbing and eating. A quick scroll through ‘X’ and Instagram would reveal a flood of reels featuring inappropriate Indian tourist behaviour. But, what makes them so ‘uncouth’? Why do labels like “bargain-seeker”, “miser” and “rowdy” stick to the Indian tourist’s identity? With the country’s outbound tourism market growing at a record pace, in 2023 alone, Indian tourists spent $33.3 billion, prompting many countries to recognise their potential and roll out the red carpet with e-visas and simplified visa processes. The Turn to page 2