The latest Priceline.com new study reveals tourists’ secrets for looking like the locals,as well as locals’ irritations at “touristy” behaviors. The data also tells of the most welcoming cities and attractions, along with these other findings:
- Undercover Tourists: Tourists (15%) identified Anthony Bourdain as a top travel icon, and as someone to emulate for blending in. Despite Bourdain’s skill, tourists also dropped dime on themselves for going against Bourdain recommendations like asking for directions, etc.
- An Old-School Approach to Navigation: Almost half of tourists (42%) still use a print-out maps and “old school” navigation techniques. Even still, a high percentage of tourists and locals use smart devices and apps like Google Maps to get around.
- Love is in the [Vacation] Air: Tourists get smitten with locals. This is what the study showed where “mixing” with the locals romantically is concerned. Over a third of surveyed tourists say they’d love to have a fling with a local.
- Tourist Gear Giveaways: Sadly, most tourists still wear touristy gear and wear the cliche camera about their necks.
- Sunny Destinations Make the Grade: Orlando and Las Vegas rate “up there” where sunshine and fun factor into favorite destinations.
- Room for Improvement: Locals agree, their biggest pet peeve is when tourists do not pay attention to their surroundings. That partying college student passed out in the wrong place? It’s still frowned upon, imagine that.
Chris Soder, priceline.com CEO, offered this comment on his company’s new findings:
“At priceline.com, we’re committed to understanding travel trends and traveler needs and preferences. To get the full picture of what our customers want, we strive to ground our services and product innovation in research. That’s one of the reasons we conducted the ‘2014 Tourist Report Card’ study – to monitor the shifting travel attitudes, perceptions and behaviors of consumers.”
For those interested, the full report can be found here. Readers can also follow Priceline on Facebook and Twitter.