The "Ugly Everyone"

As a stereotype, the “Ugly American” has become famous. He’s easy to picture, with his shorts and pale legs, fanny pack, and overbearing attitude. Working in the Tourism Office of Malaga, I have discovered that the vast majority of tourists are “ugly,” not just the Americans. At this point it would be impossible to determine how many times an impatient tourist has asked me if I speak French, German, or Italian. Always baffled that their language isn’t spoken in a Spanish tourism office, they usually agree that this is impossible. I must have not heard them clearly. So they raise their voice and slowly spit back at me the same question. I am convinced that arrogance and closed minded tourists do not hail solely from the United States, they come from all over. My Spanish counterparts at the office seem to agree. In fact for the most part, American tourists are not loathed in the Tourism Office, no one group is singled out. We get good tourists and bad tourists, and this idea of the “Ugly American” is for the most part a stereotype. For a long time, Americans did more traveling and were more visible. This may not be true anymore with the influx of tourists using low cost airlines, but the idea of the “Ugly American” tourist has stuck. Though unfair, I take solace in the knowledge that it’s not the “Ugly American,” it’s the “Ugly Everyone.”