Why can’t Brits resist behaving badly with meltdowns on holiday?

We’ll say it before you do: Not all Brits.

Of course, not every British person will be leaping off balconies into Spanish swimming pools, and then into A&E.

Many of us are boring enough to be content with a book on a sunlounger, a sandcastle, and a (singular) Aperol Spritz in a quaint little cafe.

But there’s a reason we immediately got the blame for a viral video of holidaymakers bashing each other with pool chairs, even if the hotel hasn’t commented on what happened yet.

So why it is that ‘Brits abroad’ has become such a well-known phenomenon?

Zoe Adjey, a senior lecturer in hospitality and tourism at the University of East London, told Metro that the main culprit is, surprise surprise… alcohol.

Most people don’t start singing loudly, taking their clothes off, brawling or ‘balconing’ while sober – but it’s not simply a case of more free time to drink on holiday.

So why do people behave so badly?

When we’re on holiday, alcohol is often much cheaper, especially in Spain and Greece, because there’s less tax on it, Zoe said.

‘So getting drunk is an awful lot cheaper, and then you have all inclusive holidays, and packages into bars. You can buy a tag for €20 and get three drinks, which we don’t have in this country because we’re now heavily legislated – we can barely do a two-for-one deal on an alcoholic beverage in the bar these days.’

Resorts such as Torremolinos, Magaluf, and Mykonos are popular party destinations, but the Brit Abroad can be found anywhere there’s a stag or hen do outside our borders.

They can even be seen on the aeroplane before arriving, such as when a British man tried to storm the cockpit on an EasyJet flight to Greece after drinking a bottle of Scotch, or when passengers cheered as a drunken woman was escorted off a flight to Egypt by police.

The ‘airport pint’ is seen as a holiday milestone, even if it’s at 6am. Once we arrive, celebrations often continue with the same spirit… though some might switch to vodka.

In many areas, there is a culture of encouraging people to drink a lot from bar owners and holiday reps, because it is seen as a sign they are enjoying themselves, Zoe said.

In the UK, a drunk person is likely to be told to leave due to restrictions on serving them, but the same may not apply overseas, meaning people continue spending their money on shots and lager until they’re ready to become a national stereotype.

The consequences of boozy behaviour can be much worse than an altercation by the pool or a lost wallet.

What can go wrong?

‘At weekends in high season, emergency departments can resemble a war zone sometimes,’ Zoe said. ‘A lot of people having to be rehydrated, vomiting, and with broken bones. Everybody thinks they can climb a bollard or a wall.’

She said the extra demand on health services from tourists with heatstroke, alcohol poisoning, or bruises from falling though railings is so severe that some strips where bars and restaurants are clustered have paramedic stations set up in the street.

Meanwhile, some health impacts are less immediately obvious, such as coming home with a sexually transmitted infection, or even an unplanned pregnancy.

Being abroad doesn’t mean you won’t get arrested, either. Last year, British tourists on a stag do in Majorca were told to pay £850 if they wanted their passports back after a brawl at a beach club which went viral.

The consequences can even be tragic, and there are sadly too many headlines of people dying after falling from balconies, or drowning in the sea.

Are we more inclined to go wild on holiday?

Georgina Sturmer, a BACP-regulated women’s counsellor, told Metro there are psychological reasons we may be more eager to let loose away from home.

‘Our working lives are so busy and stressful, and they’ve also become very unbounded,’ she said. ‘That idea of being able to come home from work and escape just doesn’t exist anymore.’

We are also constrained in terms of behaviour at work, such as not being able to wear swim shorts or a bikini all day, and generally trying to be professional.

Being in a foreign country, with no early alarm warning you off cocktails at 2am, can mean the brakes are off – especially if on holiday with friends, meaning family responsibilities have been left at home as well.

‘I often talk and write about online disinhibition, which is when we do things and say things online that we wouldn’t in real life,’ Georgina said.

‘There’s also something we refer to as situational disinhibition, which is when we are in a different place.’

When we leave situations where we feel we ‘need to keep it together,’ there’s sense that we can finally ‘let loose’, which may not always be pretty.

Does what happens in Vegas still stay there?

Georgina warned the sense of freedom we feel on holiday can be an illusion, however.

‘Gone are the days of “what happens on holiday, stays on holiday”: We might feel we can do whatever we want, but the reality is that everything can be captured, recorded and shared, and that presents a risk.’

Ultimately, your post-holiday hangover could not just be about drinking too much, but ‘having to cope with the recorded consequences of what we’ve been up to.’

You might even end up in this newspaper.

The stereotype of pissed Brits on their hol might soon die out though, according to Georgina, becoming associated more with raucous pensioners than the 18 to 30 crowd.

‘Groups of younger people are prioritising wellness, and so I wonder as that generation gets older if that picture will change, when people are going on holiday and they’re prioritising things like sleep and exercise and fresh air and cultural experiences.’

Why do we get so angry about sunbeds anyway?

‘Sunbed wars’ is one of the most notorious motives for anger on holiday, even with no alcohol involved.

It might sound silly to be so territorial over a lounger, but Georgina can understand why the issue gets people’s backs up.

‘Claiming your sunbed is like a symbol of your real estate on holiday, isn’t it? It’s almost like it has that power to make or break each of your precious holiday days,’ she said.

‘It becomes this symbol of satisfaction – like, “my day is going to be good, because I’ve managed to get the fabulous sunbed by the pool”.

‘So if if that hasn’t worked out for me and I’ve got up at 5am and they’re already taken, then that might have an impact on my mood for the day.’

Do other nations behave like this?

In short, yes, but in places like Spain and Greece where locals live with sunnier weather year round, there’s not as much call to cram it all into one week of madness.

Germans have historically been most victimised by the sunbed stereotype, and tourism expert Zoe also pointed out that Brits are far from the only nationality to behave badly after boozing overseas.

‘I was in Thailand recently and there were Australian students doing similar things. If you go to Florida during Spring Break in in February, it is full of American college students doing the same thing. So it’s not just us.’

And we also can’t entirely blame the drinking culture abroad. If you’ve ever been on an all-inclusive holiday, you’ll know the cocktails are often pretty weak, the beer only comes in half pints, or may even seem suspiciously watered down.

What is the tourism industry doing about it?

Amid widespread protests about overtourism (mainly focused on the loss of housing and resources for locals rather than the tourists themselves), many regions have taken steps to try and reduce the impact of bad behaviour.

In Spain, various crackdowns have been introduced, including in Playa de Palma, S’Arenal and Magaluf (all in Mallorca), and the West End of San Antonio, Ibiza.

Guests here now have a six-drink limit, with three drinks at lunch, and a further three at dinner, in regions badly affected by disruptive guests.

On Magaluf’s infamous strip, pub crawls have also been banned.

In Gran Canaria, beachgoers could be fined up to £2,500 for a variety of misdemeanours ranging from collecting shells to putting up an umbrella for shade or having public sex (they did not specify whch would result in the biggest fine).

And in Malaga, signs have been put up saying ‘Dress completely’ as part of the city council’s campaign to encourage Brits to keep their tops on in public.

Still, whatever rules are put in place, we’re always going to be tempted to overindulge on our hard-earned holiday.

As Zoe points out: ‘You’re not wearing the same clothes you would normally wear. You’ve got less responsibilities… You’re staying in a hotel, with somebody coming in and washing your bathroom every day and making your bed.

‘Everything’s a lot more relaxed, and that, plus meeting new people and wanting to impress your friends, does lead to quite bad behavior.’

She said her best way around this was to ask her students which dodgy areas they were booking flights to – and then avoid them.

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