Is this the end of the tits and tequila culture of package holidays? | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett | Opinion
Could it be curtains for the “great†boozy British package holiday? In a blow for teenage holidaymakers across the nation looking for a post-exams blowout, one of the country’s favourite party destinations â€" Malia in Crete â€" is restricting access to groups of pissed-up clubbers in favour of families from better-behaved countries. Up to 95% of the town’s hotels have banned package deals for the 18 to 30 age group (really it should be 18 to 20, because anyone who has been there will tell you that by 21 you’re already too ancient for Malia’s notorious strip), and 10,000 British holidaymakers have now been turned away.
It serves us right.
A week of surnburnt binge-drinking at chlamydia-ridden foam parties (followed, next morning, by a dose of emergency contraception and an interpretation of a “full English†involving inexplicable frankfurters) has become, in the last decade or two, a rite of passage for young British people keen to blow off steam after their exams. Resorts such as Magaluf, Faliraki, Ayia Napa, Kavos and, of course, Malia have become synonymous with a certain type of party-goer.
This is nothing new â€" the paralytic “Brits on tour†genre of fly-on-the-wall reality TV programming has proved itself to have much mileage, its interpretations ranging from Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents to The Inbetweeners film. Tabloids relish the photographs of scantily-clad, vomit-strewn young women that emerge each summer, and videos of the tawdry “sex games†played in bars at the behest of tour operators go viral.
This coverage often carries an unpleasantly shaming tone, not to mention an unsavoury dollop of classism. There’s historically been a snobbery around package holidays on the part of those who seem to believe that working-class people don’t deserve or aren’t fit to travel, which ignores the fact that bad behaviour in resorts such as Malia transcends class boundaries (not to mention that a large proportion of these kids are middle class). There’s also the uncomfortable fact of our reputation as holidaymakers abroad â€" it’s wretched, and we all know it.
I doubt that this will have been helped by Brexit. Our standing on the continent is at an all-time low. Indeed, much of Brits’ behaviour abroad â€" the sense of entitlement, the determination to behave in ways one never would at home, the lack of respect for cultural or linguistic diversity, the pig-headed belief (even when your head is in a toilet) that you’re somehow superior to other countries â€" is what might be termed Brexity. This isn’t about being a puritan who feels holidaymakers should be banned from enjoying themselves; it’s about accepting that we have a certain reputation because we have a certain genre of tourists who believe themselves to be better than everyone else, and that we should be ashamed of it.
I’ve been to Malia â€" despite, at 26, being far too old for it â€" because flying into Crete is a cheap way to get to the more sedate Cyclades islands. It has a beautiful beach and coastline, and a stunning old town full of excellent restaurants with little tables under clusters of bougainvillea, where they welcome you with open arms and serve raki that their mothers made in their bathtubs. Yet turn a corner, and you’re confronted with a teeming approximation of Watford High Street on a Saturday night (even the revolving dancefloor is imported).
You might simply conclude that I’m a stuck-up old lady for preferring the traditional side of Malia, but you have to admit that a tourist industry so focused on hammered British teenagers is going to be unpleasant for the locals. Our hotel room had a sign listing the cost of everything that wasn’t nailed down in case of breakage. Imagine dealing with that on a day-to-day basis. No wonder enraged locals in the Corfu town of Kavos have set up a Facebook group documenting bad behaviour.
There’s an assumption on the part of many British people that we can simply continue to behave this way in perpetuity, and that others should count themselves lucky that we deign to spend our tourist euros in their backyard. But people do not have infinite reserves of friendship and goodwill. Greece is one of the most beautiful and welcoming countries that I have visited, not to mention the birthplace of democracy and fried cheese (the food of the gods). Seeing how British binge-drinking culture has destroyed Malia and other resorts like it would make many of us blush.
As hoteliers begin to realise that they’d rather have a nice Dutch family as guests, and tourists become increasingly aware of the appeal of flexible travel offered by budget airlines and Airbnb, you wonder how long the tits and tequila culture of the 18 to 30 holiday can last. Perhaps we’ll mourn its demise when it comes â€" as the end of an era â€" but it would do wonders for Britain’s reputation.
0 Response to "Is this the end of the tits and tequila culture of package holidays? | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett | Opinion"
Posting Komentar