6 Countries Where American Tourists Aren’t Always Warmly Welcomed And Why

Traveling abroad can be an eye-opening experience, but visitors don’t always receive the same reactions everywhere they go. While many people enjoy meeting tourists from different countries, others have less favorable opinions of certain visitors based on their country’s image, behavior they associate with tourists, or broader perceptions.

A 2025 survey by Upgraded Points explored how Europeans view American tourists, collecting responses from more than 2,200 Europeans across 22 countries and over 1,000 frequent American travelers.

The findings revealed differences in how welcoming respondents considered their countries toward Americans, how annoyed they felt by American tourists, and their overall opinions of visitors from the United States.

Here are six European countries that stood out in different parts of the survey. The results reflect respondents’ opinions, not proof that American travelers regularly experience unfriendly treatment.

France

France recorded the highest share of respondents who described their country as generally unwelcoming toward American tourists. According to the Upgraded Points survey, 15% of respondents in France selected this description.

There was another notable finding involving American travelers themselves. When asked which countries they believed viewed Americans least favorably, 47% of American respondents selected France.

However, these two figures measure different things. The 15% represents the opinions of respondents describing their own country, while the 47% reflects American travelers’ perceptions of how other countries view them.

Neither figure means that most French residents dislike Americans. Instead, the results show that France stood out in this particular survey for perceptions of less welcoming attitudes toward American visitors.

Hungary

Hungary also appeared among the countries where some respondents expressed reservations about American tourists. The survey found that 8.7% described their country as generally unwelcoming toward visitors from the United States.

Another 17.5% reported having negative overall opinions of American tourists. However, Hungary also had one of the survey’s lowest shares of respondents expressing negative overall opinions toward American visitors. This provides important context when interpreting the figures.

The two measurements are not identical. Someone might describe their country as less welcoming without necessarily having a negative overall opinion of American tourists.

For American travelers considering Hungary, these findings should not be mistaken for evidence of widespread hostility. They simply reflect the views expressed by a portion of survey participants.

Norway

Norway produced an interesting result involving both tourism perceptions and American politics.

According to the survey, 8% of respondents described their country as generally unwelcoming toward American tourists. Another 44% said the 2024 U.S. presidential election had affected their views of American travelers.

That second figure deserves careful attention. Saying an election affected someone’s opinion does not automatically mean the person’s opinion became more negative.

It also does not establish that political disagreements translate into unfriendly treatment of individual American visitors.

The findings show that a considerable share of Norwegian respondents reported a connection between a major American political event and their perceptions of American travelers. However, the survey does not establish exactly how those views changed.

For tourists, the distinction between opinions about a country’s politics and attitudes toward individual visitors remains important.

Denmark

Denmark recorded several different findings concerning American tourists. The survey found that 7.5% of respondents described their country as generally unwelcoming toward American visitors. Separately, 37% expressed negative overall opinions of American tourists.

There was also a political connection in the responses. About 30% said the 2024 U.S. presidential election had affected their views of American travelers.

These numbers measure three different things. The first concerns how welcoming respondents consider their country, the second reflects their general opinions of American tourists, and the third measures whether a political event influenced their views.

They should not be treated as interchangeable evidence of hostility.

Although the figures suggest that some Danish respondents have unfavorable impressions of American tourists, they do not establish that American visitors should expect poor treatment during their stay.

Spain

Spain’s results offer a useful reminder that a country appearing in a survey about less favorable perceptions does not necessarily mean its residents are broadly annoyed by American tourists.

According to Upgraded Points, 6.9% of respondents described Spain as generally unwelcoming toward American visitors.

Meanwhile, just 7.8% reported feeling annoyed by American tourists. This was one of the lowest reported annoyance levels among the countries examined.

The difference between these findings matters. Describing a country as generally unwelcoming and personally feeling annoyed by tourists are separate measures.

Spain’s numbers do not support the idea that American visitors are widely disliked there. In fact, the relatively low annoyance figure provides a more balanced picture of the responses.

For American travelers, Spain’s inclusion is better understood as part of a broader examination of European perceptions rather than a warning against visiting the country.

Portugal

Portugal stands out for a different reason. Unlike some of the other countries on this list, its inclusion is based on negative overall opinions and reported annoyance rather than a position among the five countries with the highest reported unwelcoming attitudes.

The Upgraded Points survey found that approximately 38% of respondents expressed negative overall opinions of American tourists. Additionally, 18.8% reported feeling annoyed by American visitors.

These findings suggest that some Portuguese respondents hold unfavorable impressions of American tourists. However, neither statistic measures how frequently American travelers experience unpleasant encounters or whether they receive different treatment from other visitors.

It is also important not to confuse Portugal’s results with the survey’s ranking of perceived unwelcoming attitudes. Portugal was not among the top five countries in that particular ranking.

Its inclusion highlights a different aspect of the research: overall opinions and reported annoyance.

What Do These Findings Mean for American Travelers?

Survey results can reveal interesting differences in public perceptions, but they cannot predict how an individual traveler will be treated.

Across Europe, the Upgraded Points research found that 27% of respondents had a negative opinion of American tourists, while 72% said they were open to interacting with them. Only 8% reported being reluctant to interact with American visitors.

That suggests that unfavorable general opinions do not automatically translate into a refusal to welcome or interact with individual Americans.

The research also has limitations, including insufficiently disclosed country-level sample sizes and other methodological details. These findings should therefore be understood as survey responses, not definitive measurements of entire populations.