Expedia, the Internet travel agency, hired pollster TNS Infratest to conduct Expedia’s annual Best Tourist Survey. The central question is: When traveling abroad, how do international tourists from various countries rank in terms of characteristics such as politeness, generosity, and willingness to cope with foreign languages and foreign cultures?

Last month, TNS Infratest asked 4,557 hotel owners around the world to rate international tourists from 27 different countries. Then they analyzed the results. Surprise, surprise! Americans didn’t rate as the world’s worst tourists. The French did.

According to this survey, the French are the world’s most impolite and tight-fisted tourists. Seen as rude and reluctant to part with their money (they spend less when traveling and are notoriously poor tippers), they also rate poorly in foreign language ability and willingness to cope with different cultures.

Expedia’s Marketing Director believes that the explanation for this dead-last ranking is to be found in the unusually high degree of satisfaction that the French have with their own country and in their comparatively low degree of foreign travel experience. This viewpoint doesn't put the blame on French feelings of culturally superiority. Instead, it assumes that the French attach lower value to foreign travel and foreign cultures because they don’t feel they need to leave France in order to have a great vacation.

To no one’s surprise, French tourists rated well on fashion in this survey. They ranked third on the “dress sense while on vacation” criterion. Also to no one’s surprise, the Japanese (polite, good spenders, good tippers) were rated the best tourists in the world.

The British (polite, good tippers) and Germans (polite) came out best of the Europeans on this survey. Canadian and Swiss tourists were rated least likely to complain.

Americans were rated the world’s 11th best tourists -- essentially middle-of-the-pack -- and were among the top-rated tippers. While this might be taken as evidence that the “Ugly American” tag is undeserved, it’s also true that Americans continue to be regarded as “loud.”

How so these hoteliers’ perceptions compare with your own experiences with international visitors in our national parks? Are the French really the worst? Do Japanese and German tourists deserve their reputation for being unfailingly polite? Is it true that Canadians don't complain? Who are the lousy tippers, and who are the best?

My own experience suggests that the French tourists in our parks are pretty normal by international standards. The ones I’ve talked to have waxed enthusiastic about the beauty, wildlife, and solitude of our parks. I’ve found them to be polite, even gracious.

Traveler trivia – no extra charge: France is the world’s leading tourist destination, and the more than 80 million international tourist arrivals it chalks up each year is nearly ten percent of the world total. In addition to having important cultural attractions, France borders on seven different countries.