Britons are rated the world's rudest tourists

To legions of weary Greek restaurateurs, Italian waiters and Spanish barmen, it will come as no surprise – Britons are the rudest, brashest, most tongue-tied and least desirable holidaymakers in the world.

To legions of weary Greek restaurateurs, Italian waiters and Spanish barmen, it will come as no surprise – Britons are the rudest, brashest, most tongue-tied and least desirable holidaymakers in the world.

A global survey of tourism officers has found that the inhabitants of the UK are the nightmare of hoteliers, souvenir sellers and ice cream vendors from Ibiza to Bangkok. Were the universal loathing of 17 of the most popular holiday destinations not bad enough, it seems the best regarded travellers are those traditional rivals for the poolside loungers, the Germans.

The poll, by the travel company Expedia, ranked each nation on criteria ranging from respect for hosts to tipping, and general behaviour to ability to speak a foreign language. Britons came lowest in all but one of the criteria, scoring a total of minus 44, some 38 points fewer the next worst behaved, the Irish and Israelis, and 83 behind the Germans.

The Americans were ranked as the most polite, while the Germans made the most effort to use their hosts' language, and the Italians were most willing to try local delicacies. Britons, along with Russians and Spaniards, were found to be the most likely to talk loudly in their own language to try to make themselves understood.

The only consolation for Britain's boorish masses is that they are not the meanest. That distinction was found to belong to New Zealanders.