The Debate on Indian Travelers' Behavior and Global Respect

What happens when an economy is zooming along, but the sense of right and wrong just completely falls behind? That’s the uncomfortable question industrialist Harsh Goenka tossed out on X. It blew up into this massive argument about how Indian travelers act when they actually visit other countries.

Goenka posted something, showing an actual notice. It was from a hotel in Gstaad, Switzerland. The letter was specific. It laid out rules just for “guests from India.” Things like don't steal food from the buffet. Use the cutlery. Stop shouting in the hallways and balconies. Disgusting, right?

He wrote something reflecting that reaction. He was appalled.

“A Swiss hotel once showed us a list of special rules just for Indian guests. I saw it myself, and it just made me sick. And today? Videos keep circulating. Garba in restaurants. Loud chats in airports. Turning cabins into picnic spots. Even in Davos, some guy blasted Punjabi music in a club so the whole town could hear it. He called it ‘soft power’ but honestly, it just annoyed everyone. Japan, they get global respect for their manners and their sense of what’s right. If India wants to be a real superpower, the world needs to see our excellence, our consideration. Our respect for others. Our civic sense seriously needs fixing.”

The post just exploded. Thousands of people jumped in. They weren’t just aGreeing. They were sharing their own travel nightmares. Deep worry spread fast. People were genuinely scared that a few loud, entitled travelers were just wiping out the hard-earned reputation of the whole country.

Some people focused on the long game. The damage, they argued, isn’t just immediate. One user hit on that point.

“It’s just so distressing hearing more and more reports about careless, callous behavior from Indians. We’re becoming the most despised tourists. It erases all our progress. It cancels out how much we spend.”

Others shifted the blame. They argued that just throwing money around doesn’t fix a lack of basic manners. It blamed a new kind of rich culture. Something fueled by loud movies, replacing old humility with just arrogance. “We used to be a society of culture and traditions. Humility and respect were just how we lived. Now, this #Bollywood music and dancing? It’s being soaked up by the young crowd. Throwing money around is just crass. Old wealth looks down on that kind of behavior.”

Then you get the complaints about shared spaces. It seems like a lot of the mess starts with how a few bad actors view public areas. Blasting videos on phones. Stealing stuff. Some habits just seem stuck in place.

One comment hit hard. “I noticed that ‘public place’ just means everyone has a right over it. Seriously. Someone needs to tell them all that no one owns public space. No stealing from the buffet? That seems just incurable.”

Another person connected it back home. Like these bad habits from the house just get exported overseas. “Civic sense and some Indians are two lines that just can’t meet. If you see the same stuff happening here—scrolling loud, spitting wherever you want—it’s the same thing happening over there too.”

It felt like a reaction against a sense of national pride. People used culture as an excuse. An excuse to cross lines. To act out without any accountability. It started with humility and honesty. The last few generations were taught to be incredibly proud of their traditions, and now that pride just gets turned into being loud.

Then came the firsthand accounts of what some groups actually pull in Europe. The defensive, toxic mentality they use to justify it all. One person shared something about those Swiss hotels. They hate tourists from India because they pack so many people into one room, slyly. They throw trash around, and then they proudly say they looted us once, and now they clean up after us. What is that mindset? The way they act when they come as guests here.

But then there was the pushback. Not everyone was on board with this narrative. Some users fiercely defended Indian customs. They swung the argument back at the West. “Point number two is outright racist. Indians eat with their hands. If you have a problem with that, we have a problem with most Europeans using paper to wipe their other mouth. Spitting stuff out, leaving stink—that’s unappetizing too.”

It really comes down to where you draw the line. Are the hotel rules a necessary reminder about public manners? Or is it just Western elitism trying to impose itself? Goenka’s post definitely hit a raw nerve. It leaves India with this massive, burning question. How do we manage taking up space in the world while actually respecting the people living around us?