Named 25 tourists with the worst behavior in the world in 2023

Italy has long been a hotspot for bad behavior from tourists who treat it like a theme park, and the year got off to a predictably grim start when an American was caught driving a car across Florence’s Ponte Vecchio pedestrian bridge. Italy’s most famous bridge, built during the medieval period and then rebuilt to connect the Palazzo Pitti with the Uffizi galleries during the reign of the Medici, who lived in the former and worked in the latter, the Ponte Vecchio is said to have been so beautiful that the Germans left it untouched During the Second World War. But the 34-year-old American was fined 500 euros for driving through it.

The year also got off to a bad start for both wildlife and heritage. In February, a Chinese journalist was fined after live-streaming herself cooking and eating a great white shark, a protected species in China. She was reportedly fined 125,000 yuan, or $18,600.

Spring had just begun in the northern hemisphere when a Russian tourist caused outrage in March by stripping off to pose half-naked for a photo at a sacred site in Bali. A man bared from the waist down during an impromptu photo shoot on Mount Agung, a volcano dedicated to the god Shiva. The tourist later apologized and called Ni Lu Jelantik, a Balinese businesswoman and tourist-in-trouble extraordinaire, to mediate between him and the locals. He eventually took part in a ceremony at a temple where he prayed with Hindu priests. However, this did not prevent him from being deported.

The Russian was not the only tourist who behaved badly in Bali. That same month, authorities announced a ban on tourists renting motorcycles due to the accidents they cause.

Meanwhile, in Japan, authorities announced a crackdown on visitors to the Ghibli Park theme park, dedicated to the work of the popular animation company Studio Ghibli, who took “indecent” photographs.

In February, photos were posted on social media showing men “pretending to sexually harass young female characters” in Ghibli Park, Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper reported. “For those who come to the park to do such things, I would prefer that they not come at all,” said Hideaki Omura, governor of Aichi Prefecture.

And with the arrival of spring in Hong Kong, residents have noticed a resurgence of “beggar” tourists who engage in street trading, sell things or simply ask local residents for money for their travels. Resident Ashley James told CNN: “Hong Kong is a very expensive place to live… Locals can’t even afford to live here. Why are you in one of the most expensive places in the world and asking us to buy beads? Travel is a luxury all over the world and people who say ‘pay for my trip’ are stupid and entitled.”

Next, CNN suggests returning to Italy again. In Florence, another American tourist behind the wheel was fined 470 euros for illegally driving a rental car – a bright red Ferrari – into the pedestrianized Piazza della Signoria, the city’s main Renaissance square.

Meanwhile, Venice is no stranger to bad behavior from tourists, but in March one visitor put himself at risk by jumping into a canal from the roof of a three-story building. Mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted that he would give the perpetrator a “certificate of stupidity and a lot of kicking” once he was traced, and blamed social media: “They do these stupid things for likes.”

However, there was one piece of good news at the start of the European season, CNN continues. In March, a couple were jailed for stealing $1.7 million worth of wine from a Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain in 2021. The couple left the Atrio restaurant in Caceres, western Spain, with 45 bottles of wine wrapped in hotel towels and hidden in travel bags, including a bottle of 1805 Château d’Yquem which was listed on the menu for 350, the court heard. 000 euros. The pair visited the restaurant three times, planning the heist, before hosting a 14-course dinner and a guided tour of the wine cellar. They then broke in at night from a nearby hotel.

Sometimes it is not an individual who behaves badly, but an entire country. In March, Amsterdam launched a “Stay Away” campaign aimed at deterring young Britons from coming to the Dutch capital to cause trouble at stag parties. The campaign used targeted ads that were shown to anyone who searched Google for terms ranging from “cheap hotel Amsterdam” to “Amsterdam pub crawl”, warning potential rowdy travelers of the possibility of being arrested, fined or ending up in hospital after a drug trip gone wrong.

They might not be doing it for social media, but one group of “young adult men” are in trouble in the UK’s Lake District. The area is known for its stunning views, but for this group the natural beauty wasn’t enough and they decided to enhance their experience with the help of magic mushrooms. Volunteer rescuers were alerted to them by passersby and found the group “who appeared to be disoriented.”

And when the European summer season began, one Austrian village was so fed up with tourists taking selfies that it erected a fence to block the view. Hallstatt, which is said to have inspired the Disney film Frozen, comes after up to 10,000 people arrive daily in the village of about 800 residents.

Sometimes bad behavior leads to tragic consequences – and not just for tourists. On May 20, a visitor to Yellowstone National Park “disturbed” a newborn baby bison after it was separated from its mother and the rest of the herd while crossing a river. The man pulled the calf from the river despite park rules that state visitors must stay at least 25 yards away from the animals. Following the interaction, the herd rejected the calf, which then began approaching park visitors. Rangers euthanized the unfortunate animal.

Horrific consequences were narrowly avoided when YouTuber Trevor Daniel Jacob deliberately crashed his plane in California while filming a video to promote a wallet. Jacob, a pilot and skydiver, filmed himself ejecting and parachuting to safety. He pleaded guilty after the video went viral.

But people don’t always behave badly. An “exhausted” and possibly injured dog had to be rescued in the UK’s Lake District after it refused to go any further. A mountain rescue team brought her down on a stretcher from the Scafell Pike landmark in just over four hours. At 77 pounds, he’s a hefty dog, but he’s no match for a team of professionals with stretchers. “Even though he is a fairly large dog, weighing 33kg, it was nice to carry such a relatively light victim. The victim remained cool, calm and positively regal the entire time,” the rescue team said in a statement.

In June, a British tourist at Rome’s Colosseum was caught carving “Ivan + Hayley 23” into a 2,000-year-old monument. He was smiling when filmed – but he was less cheerful when police tracked him down just a day later. According to a Carabinieri police spokesman, the British resident immediately asked for forgiveness from Italian authorities and said he did not know how old the monument was. He is now awaiting trial in 2024.

Over the summer, tourists in Italy continued to damage its fragile heritage. In July, two teenagers were caught vandalizing the Colosseum for several days in a row: first a girl from Switzerland, and then a boy from Germany. Both were caught carving their names into the structure.

Rising temperatures have left many of us wanting to strip off, which has led to visitors to Britain’s sunflower fields being asked to stop posing naked among the foliage. The owners of Stoke Fruit Farm on Hayling Island, off the south coast of England, posted on social media a plea for visitors to keep their clothes on after noticing an increasing number of guests were stripping to pose naked among the flowers. Owner Sam Wilson told CNN it’s a particularly pressing issue in 2023. “We’ve always had people taking risqué shots, but this is the first year it’s become a problem, so we put up signs,” he said, adding that they issued the warning after visiting children “saw what was going on.” “

Meanwhile in Italy, two German tourists were arrested for spray-painting Florence’s Vasari Corridor, which connects the Uffizi Galleries with the Ponte Vecchio. The couple were part of a group of 11 people in Florence for a football match. The graffiti, as you might expect, belonged to their team. This caused over $10,000 worth of damage.

In the north of the country, a group of German tourists knocked over a priceless statue in an attempt to pose for the perfect photo in Vigiu, near Lake Como.

And as temperatures soared in Rome, a tourist was caught stepping into the Trevi Fountain to fill her water bottle. It was unclear what happened to the woman, but she was captured on video as authorities detained her. Entering the famous fountain can result in a fine of 500 euros.

Speaking of European capitals, Paris didn’t survive the summer unscathed either. In August, two drunken American tourists were found one morning at the Eiffel Tower after spending the night there, “believed to be trapped due to excessive alcohol consumption,” Paris prosecutors told CNN.

We are always ready to condemn other air passengers for bad behavior, but sometimes the airlines themselves indulge in a little extraordinary behavior. In September, Air Canada employees forced paying passengers on a flight from Las Vegas to Montreal to sit in seats still dirty from vomit from the previous flight. “They put coffee beans in a bag on the seat and sprayed perfume to mask the smell. When the visibly upset passengers tried to explain to the flight attendant that the seat and seat belt were wet and there was still visible vomit in their area, the flight attendant was very apologetic but explained that the flight was full and there was nothing they could do,” one passenger wrote in in social networks. The airline apologized after news of the incident went viral.

In 2022, a tourist caused chaos in the Vatican Museums by smashing ancient sculptures. In 2023, this horrific trend spread to Israel, where two Roman sculptures from the second century AD were damaged by an American tourist. Police told CNN that the man toppled the statues because he thought they were “idolatrous,” but his lawyer disagreed, saying he was simply suffering from “Jerusalem syndrome,” where tourists become so caught up in history that they become detached from reality.

The bad behavior continued this winter. In November, an American tourist was banned for life from entering the Philippines after he was accused of writing profanity on his immigration form. Authorities said he “entered a fictitious address in the Philippines, did not provide his full name, and included obscene words in his entry.” The 34-year-old man was denied entry and placed on the Permanent Denied List for his “disrespectful” behavior, according to the Philippine Bureau of Immigration. Authorities said that upon arrival, he allegedly “showed contempt” toward one immigration officer when he was reminded to fill out an online travel form, and threw his passport and cellphone to another.

The passenger told CNN he disputed the country’s account. He became the 44th foreign national this year to be denied entry for “disrespectful” behavior.