In search of the Bad Tourist

Although the Bad Tourist has always been around, it seems that most of us have only recently noticed the phenomenon. Searches for ‘Bad Tourist’ have increased significantly since the beginning of 2025, according to Google Trends, reaching a peak in February 2026. Over the longer term, searches for Bad Tourist have doubled.

A notable increase in searches began in January 2025, and continued to rise until August 2025, after which there was a notable decline. The growth of ‘Revenge Travel’ after the covid pandemic drove a further increase in the search for the Bad Tourist, as more and more people expended pent-up holiday demand.

What is driving the rise of the Bad Tourist? One factor seems to be the increasing debate about ‘overtourism’ This term was first noted by Google in 2017 (although the Dutch version overtoeristisering was coined in 1990 by Miriam Jansen-Verbeke). Since then there has been a close relationship between searches for Bad Tourists and ‘overtourism’, with a very high correlation of 0.9 between the two. The Bad Tourist existed way before overtourism, but it seems the recent growth in tourism pressure has also placed the spotlight on the Bad Tourist.

What this analysis shows us is that the Bad Tourist has been with us much longer than recent discussions about overtourism. It is also likely that when attention moves on from the phenomenon of overtourism, the Bad Tourist will still be with us.

What characterises bad tourist behaviour? According to a 2023 survey by Global Rescue, travellers identify being too loud as the worst tourist conduct (27%), followed by not following local customs (26%). There was also annoyance at tourists expecting locals to speak their language (18%), but less than 10% of respondents noted poorly dressed visitors as Bad Tourists.

The Bad Tourist website will continue to monitor the rise of the Bad Tourist, their behaviours and habits and their impact of the places and people they visit.