Destination evaluation and the British: The English: Arrogant and unfriendly

CHANGING OF THE QUEEN'S GUARD - London, England, UK
Originally uploaded by mambo1935.

One of my jokes about myself is that my core competency is brutal honesty. It's not that I'm all that brutal, but I do have impulse control issues, I'm not big on hypocrisy, and it's hard for me to bite my tongue in favor of toadying or political correctness.

In the Main Street world I talk about Main Street principles 9 and 10--there are only 8 principles actually--knowing what you have and don't and being honest about it; and making hard choices. In this world, that comes out as "brutal honesty."

Perhaps the Visit Britain organization is a bit too honest, at least from reading this story in the Daily Telegraph, "Arrogant, unfriendly and no sense of humour: what foreign tourists think of the English," in communicating about "destination management and development" issues.

On the other hand, they might need to turn this around and figure out how to make it a competitive advantage. From the article:

They love our Royal family, our ancient traditions and our historic buildings. But if there is one thing the foreign tourist does not like, it is the character of the British people. Much as we may try to be welcoming, visitors from abroad remain distinctly unimpressed, according to the organisation responsible for promoting Britain overseas...

Research carried out by VisitBritain found that visitors from 35 different nations listed Britain a poor 16th overall on a list of countries likely to offer the most friendly welcome. And it is some of our nearest European neighbours who are particularly scathing about our national character.

Of course, I disagree with the sense of humor thing, having relished Monty Python as a high schooler... And maybe they should do commercials based on House of Commons back talking.

Index Keywords: tourism