Not every country rolls out the red carpet when a U.S. passport shows up at the gate. In fact, some places actively grit their teeth. Whether it’s political tension, mass tourism fatigue, or cultural friction, the mood toward American visitors has shifted in measurable and surprising ways in recent years.
According to a Global Rescue Snap Survey of more than 1,400 current and former members conducted in March 2025, the vast majority of experienced travelers expect U.S. tourists will be perceived more negatively and less welcome when traveling abroad. Roughly seven out of ten surveyed travelers said Americans will be perceived more negatively when traveling internationally. That is not just a feeling. It is data. So before you book that flight, let’s take a look at where exactly your American accent might not get the warmest welcome.
1. France – The Classic Cold Shoulder
France leads the pack when Europeans call their own country unwelcoming to American visitors. A 2025 Upgraded Points survey found roughly fifteen percent of French respondents admitting Americans aren’t always wanted, fueled by perceptions of loudness and entitlement.
In Paris, there’s growing exasperation with who come with little respect for local culture, expecting everything to be like back home, including demanding service in English. Honestly, this is not exactly breaking news, but the numbers behind it still sting. According to the survey, nearly half of all Americans themselves feel the French have an unfavorable opinion of them.
Anti-American sentiment is on the rise in many destinations, especially in Europe. According to recent data from YouGov, a British market research and data analytics firm, European favorability of the USA across seven major European countries has experienced a notable drop since Trump took office again, falling between six and twenty-eight percentage points.
2. Portugal – Europe’s Most Annoyed Nation
Portugal keeps turning up in European surveys in a very specific category: annoyance. Portugal tops the annoyance charts at roughly eighteen-point-eight percent, with Europeans citing noise from U.S. groups. Locals in Lisbon and the Algarve vent about ignored customs and English demands, and overtourism has fueled graffiti against visitors.
Interestingly, even though fifteen percent of French people say their country is unwelcoming to , it is actually Portugal that finds Americans most annoying. Think of it like this: France is blunt about the dislike, but Portugal carries the deeper frustration quietly, until it doesn’t. That said, a solid majority still see friendliness in Americans overall, though trade tensions continue to amplify the gripes going into 2026.
3. Denmark – The Greenland Effect
Polling in 2025 shows sharp declines in Danish favorability toward the United States, with YouGov reporting roughly seventy-four percent of Danes viewing the U.S. unfavorably in March 2025.
According to YouGov data, opinion toward the U.S. is lowest in Denmark, which is not surprising since Greenland, which Trump has vowed to annex, is an autonomous territory of the country. That political dimension made things very personal for Danes very fast. A Megafon survey for TV 2 revealed that approximately half of Danish consumers reported deliberately refraining from buying U.S. products since Trump’s inauguration.
Denmark shows up repeatedly in unwelcoming surveys, with roughly fourteen-point-eight percent annoyance rates and seven-point-five percent of its residents deeming their country unwelcoming to Americans. The tourism board kept reassuring visitors, but the undercurrent is real. Walking through Copenhagen with an American accent in 2025 is a noticeably different experience than it was five years ago.
4. Norway – Quiet Resentment, Loud Numbers
Norway isn’t the kind of country that throws protests or makes dramatic headlines. It’s reserved, civil, and measured. Which is precisely why the data feels so significant.
Scandinavian countries stood out most in surveys about the political impact on tourism: Norway topped the list at forty-four percent of respondents saying the 2024 U.S. presidential election impacted how they view American travelers, followed by Estonia at thirty-five percent, Sweden at thirty-one percent, Denmark at thirty percent, and Finland at twenty-nine percent.
Norway scores eight percent on the self-reported unwelcoming scale, and broadly across Scandinavia, roughly half to sixty percent of people view the United States unfavorably, depending on the country. Norway values orderly, quiet public spaces. A rowdy group of tourists on a fjord hike doesn’t just annoy locals there. It feels like a genuine intrusion.
5. Spain – Mass Tourism Rage
Spain’s story is different from the others. The tension here isn’t purely political. It’s something more raw and visceral: locals who are completely exhausted by mass tourism. The country welcomed a near-record number of visitors in recent years, and the backlash has been fierce. Across 2024 and 2025, protests against overtourism drew international attention, especially in Barcelona and parts of the Balearics.
Americans aren’t being singled out per se, but they are being swept up in a much larger wave of local frustration. Locals blame rising rents on outsiders, and data shows tourism doubles the population strain in certain areas. Think of it like a shared apartment where one roommate just keeps inviting people over. At some point, the welcome runs out. Spain lists among the top unwelcoming spots at six-point-nine percent, amid the 2024 to 2025 protests against mass tourism.
6. The Netherlands – Blunt, Fluent, and Unfiltered
Countries that viewed Americans negatively overall included the Netherlands, at nearly forty percent of respondents holding negative opinions.
The Netherlands stands out particularly because Dutch people generally speak excellent English, meaning language barriers can’t explain the negative sentiment. Dutch respondents specifically cite American loudness, entitlement, and lack of awareness about local customs. Here’s the thing: when someone doesn’t speak your language, they can roll their eyes at you but you’ll never know. The Dutch, however, will tell you exactly what they think. In English. Clearly. When it comes to behaviors hurting U.S. travelers’ reputations overseas, noise is number one, with roughly two-thirds of European respondents saying Americans are far too loud. More than six out of ten believe Americans expect everyone to speak English.
7. Germany – Political Frost, Real Chill
German tourist visits to the United States declined around twenty to thirty percent in 2025 amid economic pressures, and roughly forty-five to fifty-five percent of Germans hold an unfavorable view of the U.S. That anti-American sentiment is spilling over in both directions.
NATO disputes and trade tensions have fueled anti-American feeling among locals, and German travel agencies now warn U.S. visitors about potential public hostility, especially in eastern regions. That last part is genuinely surprising. A travel agency warning visitors about potential hostility is not a subtle signal. Only around a third of respondents in Sweden, Germany, France, and the UK viewed the U.S. favorably according to YouGov data reported by CNN in 2025.
Germany saw a major plunge in interest in U.S. trips among its residents, with a notable tourism drop, and isolationist U.S. policy tones sparked a reciprocal frost according to 2025 data. Germans tend to value precision, efficiency, and clear principle. Perceived chaos and unpredictable foreign policy from Washington feel deeply uncomfortable to them.
8. Canada – The Neighbor That Went Cold
Let’s be real: this one catches most people completely off guard. Canada is supposed to be America’s best friend. Polite, hockey-loving, maple-syrup-adjacent. Except that relationship has taken a serious hit.
More Canadians visit the U.S. than visitors from any other country, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office, and Canadians made up roughly twenty-eight percent of total international visitor arrivals in 2024. Since the onset of the boycott in early 2025, Canada’s decision to restrict travel to the U.S. has led to an economic loss of over four-point-five billion dollars for the U.S. economy, and the downturn has been felt most strongly in national parks, where Canadian bookings plummeted by a staggering ninety-three percent.
Angered by Trump’s tariffs and rhetoric, and alarmed by reports of tourists being arrested at the border, some citizens of other countries are staying away from the U.S. and choosing to travel elsewhere. That anger flows in both directions. American visitors in Canada now report noticeably cooler receptions in cities like Vancouver and Toronto. Increased detentions of Canadian and European tourists at the U.S. border led several countries, including Germany, the UK, Denmark, Finland, and Portugal, to issue travel warnings for the United States. The neighborly vibe has, for now, gone icy.
9. Japan – Overtourism, Rising Fees, and Foreigner Fatigue
Japan occupies a unique spot on this list. It’s not driven by political hatred. It’s something quieter, and in some ways more deeply felt.
With a record number of tourists visiting the country in 2024, just under thirty-seven million people, things have gotten crowded. There are daily caps on the number of people allowed to climb Mount Fuji or stroll the scenic streets of Kyoto. New fees are designed to limit the number of tourists too. Beyond the sheer number of visitors, there’s an increasing sense that their behavior is a problem. Japanese locals complain that tourists jaywalk, litter, curse, and otherwise behave in ways that are out of step with Japan’s cultural norms.
Kyoto City officials recently announced an accommodation tax of up to ten thousand yen per night for foreign tourists. This is just one of many recent policy changes in a wave of restrictive initiatives specifically targeting foreigners. According to a Pew Research poll in 2025, fifty-five percent of Japanese held a favorable opinion of the United States, down from seventy percent in 2024. That’s a steep slide. In Japan, where propriety and quietude are cherished, the often loud and boisterous behavior of American visitors disrupts the peace, particularly in sacred places like temples in Kyoto. Japan is not hostile. It is, however, increasingly done with being treated like a theme park.
The Bigger Picture Behind the Cool Receptions
Before examining European attitudes in depth, surveys first asked Americans how they view their own international image: roughly half of Americans worry at least a little about their reputation when traveling internationally. Nearly three-quarters believe Americans overall have a bad reputation overseas. More than one in four Europeans hold a generally negative opinion of .
The World Travel and Tourism Council projected that the United States will lose twelve-point-five billion dollars in international visitor spending in 2025, making it the only country out of one hundred and eighty-four economies analyzed that will see a decline that year. That number is enormous and tells a story that goes far beyond tourist behavior. International travel veterans advise that it’s important to remember that locals may have strong opinions about international policies, yet they often distinguish between a country’s government and its citizens.
The takeaway here isn’t that you should cancel your trip. It’s that traveling with awareness, humility, and a genuine curiosity about other cultures still opens more doors than it closes. The world is complicated in 2026. Your passport doesn’t have to be. What do you think – did any of these countries surprise you? Let us know in the comments.