I have been traveling very regularly for the past 6 years or so and it feels like my encounters with other tourists have become more negative. I feel like a lot of tourists are extremely rowdy and rude to locals, to the point where I have had shocking encounters. Just some.exanplea from this year:
Portugal, Lisbon:
I am waiting in line for a restaurant and across from us therr are 3 Australian guys early 20s. Getting drunker by the minute and they are shouting, yelling and making weird obnoxious noises. Then they start throwing their drinks and limes on the ground. A waiter from the place next door goes over and asks them to calm down because they are disturbing other guests. They just start being rude to him and throw the rest of their limes and salt on the ground. The waiter asks them to please pick it up and quiet down a bit. Tells them they aren't kids. They tell him with a straight face: "No, you pick it up."
Zimbabwe, vic falls, boma restaurant:
Nobody says please or thank you. All I hear are demands. One example is me being in mine for steak and the French lady before me wants more and just points and sternly says "more!" He gives her more, she doesn't thank him or anyhting she just gives him a sour look and says it is too little and sighs. Instead of backing up a bit so the fire that she must have seen earlier in line doesn't affect her when it rises when he throws more sauce on the grill she huffs and puffs and acts annoyed.
Chinese tourists are literally doing entire photoshoots and stand in the way of every server. Take pics of them when they are clearly uncomfortable and just in general treat them like their entertainment or something giving them commands of what to do, how to pose etc.
Botswana, chobe river cruise:
Spanish family, constantly standing in the front of the boat where their seats already are so why they cannot sit down remains a mystery. One guy has a tiny camera with a huge lens. It looked like a bazuka guys. He is pointing it in everyone's face, obstructing the view with it. It is constantly clicking when a photo is being made. They are rowdy and loud and speak so much that there is zero peace and quiet like we were instructed to have amongst the animals. They hang out of the boat all the time, and are oblivious that everyone is being annoyed by them.
I can't remember it being quite this bad. These are just 3 of the most recent travels but I have more! My opinion is that as a tourist you should be a fly on the wall and when interacting be respectful and try to adhere to social norms rather than be your self. It might be acceptable to be super loud in your home country but in some places it is considered rude and I would expect you to research these things before going? Or at least be sensitive enough to notice it when you are acting abnormal for their culture standards? Also, please and thank you and not commanding severs is just basic human decency I would imagine?
Where to people get off actually mistreating people like that? Why do so many tourists act like they own the place they come to as a guest? In one of these places I was with a local who noticed the same thing and said unfortunately many people act this way.