By Paul Oswell, TravelMail

Last updated at 09:32 24 May 2007

Brits abroad: our image still needs some refining, but it's improving

Rude, noisy and tight-fisted – the image of British tourists is still far from perfect according to a new survey.

To add insult to injury, we're also considered sartorially-challenged. The good news is that at least we're improving.

15,000 European hoteliers were asked to classify the nationalities in terms of being good or bad tourists, another crumb of comfort being that the French topped the league of undesirability.

The world's best tourists were found to be the Japanese, followed by Americans and the Swiss. Japanese tourists stood out for their politeness and good manners, as well as for being tidy. The best European nation were the Swiss , who were commended for being quiet and considerate.

By contrast, Britons were judged to be the fifth worst tourists, mostly due to rude behaviour, noise and a miserly attitude to tipping. The only saving grace was our healthy approach to spending overall – Brits were found to be the third biggest holiday spenders after Americans and Russians.

In terms of being badly dressed, Brits came in second behind a predictable first place for the Americans.

The survey showed that the worst tourist nation was France, followed by India, China and Russia.