Hear, hear for Mr. Bermudez

Juan Manuel García Bermúdez declared: "We don't want the English who come over on cheap flights and do nothing apart from drink all day long. We only want tourism that will enrich the area."

And he gets slapped down by some local tourist establishments. Nice. He sounds like a smart guy to me. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that cheap flights = crummy tourists who cheapen and wreck a destination over time. And the hoteliers who have their panties in a bunch over Mr. Bermudez' comments should consider: they could start charging more for fewer tourists (in time of course) if they would work together to enrich the local offering.

Or they can keep churning out the mass-tourist drunken fool brit-touron fare that they apparently currently deliver.

Gets my vote...

I agree with the man. Someone once said that no-one is a worse representative of their country than a tourist. That applies to Brits more than most, I'm afraid - all too often we're an embarrassment abroad.

On holiday abroad these days, I either book places with little Brit presence, or at the very least stay away from large populations of Brits while I'm on holiday. Including the wrinkly brigade, who seem to do little else but complain, shout (rather than simply learn 'please' and 'thank you' in the host language) and relentlessly pursue duty-free alcohol. Not all, of course - but enough to make Sr Bermúdez's generalisation a fair one.

I go abroad to experience different people, customs and food, NOT for booze, chips-with-everything and an automatic assumption that Johnny Foreigner should learn English if he wants my cash.

The whole world isn't Disneyland, and foreign residents - unless they're actually employed in that role - aren't put on this earth purely for our entertainment. Politeness and a willingness to learn cost nothing but a little effort and reap huge rewards.

Sr Bermúdez - you've just put Jerez de la Frontera back on my list of possible destinations...