Lumley ashamed of drunken Brits abroad
Joanna Lumley’s biggest travel fear is meeting drunken Brits abroad, she revealed at World Travel Market this week.
Lumley, famous for her role as Patsy in the TV and film comedy Absolutely Fabulous, said she felt ashamed of the behaviour of drunken yobs on holiday.
"I can’t stand Brits abroad when they just drink, it makes me feel so ashamed," she said.
"It sends out such a terrible message from our once proud nation. We used to travel the world, we were such interesting explorers and now to just go and become drunken yobs is horrible."
The 71-year-old actress, TV presenter and campaign, said people should be ‘travellers’ rather than tourists.
"The world is absolutely stuffed with treasures, but if you always go to hotels and always go to nightclubs you miss everything," she said.
"If you want to do that, get sprayed brown and go to a nightclub here, don’t waste the journey or the opportunities. If you’re travelling, travel – do something a bit different. Do something that belongs to that country, find out what the local people do and do that."
Lumley’s next travel documentary will take her along the old Silk Road from China to Venice, visiting Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Iran, Georgia and Turkey along the way.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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