Bad British Behavior in Greece

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) recently released its third annual ‘British Behavior Abroad’ report in an effort to deal with thousands of UK citizens who continue to attract trouble when on holiday overseas.

The report provided incident figures from Foreign Office records -during the period 1 April 2006-31 March 2007- that highlight the key problems that British nationals experience abroad.

The FCO includes the top 15 countries where British nationals were involved in various incidents and required the most consular assistance (excluding Advice & Self Help cases) from 1 April 2006-31 March 2007.

According to the most accurate figures available, during the period in question and with three million British visits, Greece had 230 arrests, 131 deaths and 276 reports of stolen or lost passports.

Out of the 15 popular countries the British visit, Greece was the second country with the highest number of hospitalizations and rape cases – 602 and 28 respectively (by mid-August of this year there have been 41 rape cases reported, according to UK’s Daily Mirror).

However, the report shows that Spain topped the list with 2,032 arrests, 1,591 deaths and 29 rapes of British citizens.

It should be noted that the figures concerning Greece during the April 2006-March 2007 period have dropped considerably in comparison with FCO’s previous ‘British Behaviour Abroad’ report that covered the 1 April 2005-31 March 2006 period.

In 1 April 2005-31 March 2006, among the estimated 2,443,000 British citizens visiting Greece, there were 955 hospitilizations, 139 deaths and 48 reported rape cases.

The FCO appeals to British holidaymakers not to cut corners on travel insurance, as in a separate survey two thirds admitted that they will spend less on their foreign holiday preparations this year due to the credit crunch.

In regards to this year’s recent events in Greece, the Greek National Tourism Organization’s office in London has requested that British travel agencies not advertize Greek tourism destinations as places for ‘sex, adventures, and wild life,’ as such slogans have a negative impact on Britons.