These are the world’s ‘happiest’ and ‘grumpiest’ tourists

Some people are harder to please than others. The bed's too soft. The room's too cold. The service is terrible.


According to a new report, many of the world’s most high-maintenance travellers come from Spain.

In a ranking that aims to reveal which countries are the grumpiest and happiest travellers in the world, Spaniards emerged the most “impressively ornery,” says the report from Rewardexperts.com which reviews airline and travel rewards credit cards.

Because after crunching the numbers, it turns out Spaniards are the most likely to leave one and two-star reviews for their hotel stays.

More than other countries, they’re more likely to be fussy about the state of their rooms or nitpick about details. Likewise, they’re the fifth least likely to leave a five-star review.

After Spain, Ireland and Iceland round out the top three spots.

At the other end of the scale, Russians emerged the most easygoing. Interestingly, it’s not because they hand out the most four or five-star reviews.

Picture: iStock

What makes Russians the “world’s happiest tourists” is that they are the least likely to leave one or two-star reviews — just 5% of Russian guests felt strongly enough to do so.

Serbians and Lebanese travellers also emerged relatively easy to please in the ranking, taking second and third spots on the list of happiest travellers.

For the report, researchers combed through 3.5 million reviews written from guests in 83 countries for 13 410 hotels in 70 countries.

Here are the world’s “grumpiest” countries for travel:

1. Spain
2. Ireland
3. Iceland
4. Italy
5. Bulgaria
6. Zimbabwe
7. Denmark
8. Turkey
9. Iran
10. Lithuania

Happiest countries for travel:

1. Russia
2. Serbia
3. Lebanon
4. Australia
5. Belarus
6. Israel
7. Georgia
8. Jordan
9. USA
10. Colombia

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