Global survey outlines most annoying habits of travellers
WITH THE summer holiday season in full swing in Europe and America and another long holiday to celebrate Mother’s Day is just around the corner for Thai travellers, Agoda, one of the fastest growing online travel agents (OTA), has been asking travelers what they think are the most annoying travel habits.
Noisy travelers (57 per cent), travellers glued to their devices (47 per cent), and those insensitive to cultural nuances (46 per cent) topped the most annoying habits of fellow travelers according to Agoda’s global ‘Annoying Travel Habits’ survey. Mass tour groups and selfie-takers, cited by 36 per cent and 21 per cent respectively, completed the top five irritants.
The Agoda 'Annoying Travel Habits' research was conducted by independent market research firm YouGov between June 19th and 25th 2018. 10,384 respondents were interviewed online and are representative of those who have been on holiday at least once in the past year.
Within their countries: UK (1,418), US (597), Australia (837), Singapore (913), Malaysia (1,002), Philippines (1,011), Indonesia (1,063), Vietnam (999), Thailand (1,062) and China (1,482).
Chinese travelers seemingly have the highest tolerance for selfie-takers, with only 12 per cent of Chinese respondents irritated by selfie-takers compared to Australians who are on the other end of the tolerance spectrum with nearly a third (31 per cent) citing holiday selfie-takers as annoying.
Insensitivity to local culture nuances is more than twice as irritating for Singaporeans, (63 per cent) Filipinos (61 per cent) and Malaysians (60 per cent) as it is for Chinese (21 per cent) and Thai (27 per cent) Travelers.
About half of British (54 per cent) and two-fifths of American travelers (41 per cent) are intolerant of this habit.
Almost half (47 per cent) of the global respondents cited travelers spending too much time on their mobile devices as a grievance. Compared to travelers from other countries, the Vietnamese find those glued to their devices the most annoying (59 per cent).
Thai travellers, on the other hand, have the most relaxed attitude (31 per cent) towards constant device usage on holiday.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, solo travelers spend nearly two hours a day on their devices when on holiday (117 minutes) – which is 15 per cent more time than when they are traveling with friends (100 minutes) and 26 per cent more time than if they are with family (86 minutes).
Americans are the only exception to this trend and on average spend less time on their devices when traveling solo (62 minutes) than when they are with family (66 minutes) or friends (86 minutes).
Brits are the most engaged travelers when traveling together, limiting their screen time to just over an hour (63 minutes) a day; comparatively Thai travelers spend more than two hours a day (125 minutes) on the phone when they travel with friends or family.
