News travel fast but trips travel fast as well…that’s the least I can say!
Originally born in England during the 17th century or during the Middle-Ages in the kingdoms of the Lords (according to some other sources), tips have spread all around the world…and like the news…have been deformed, rejected, acclaimed, judged…all their long way long.
So, who wants to tip? Let’s make together a World Tour…
Europe - In most of European countries, tipping is not automatic and remains very discretionary. Generally, customers will let around 1-2 euros, or will round up. To name but a few: France, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Chypre, Luxembourg, Malta.
However some countries in Europe have instituted some more ‘’informal’’ rules as regards to tips. Guess who? UK is the good answer. UK tips differ from their other European buddies. Indeed, customers are used to give a 10-15% tip and the service is most of the time added to the bill. But UK are not the only ones…We can add to that list Ireland (OK, we can understand…very close to the UK) but also Hungary (unknown reason?). Hungarian got used to leave a 8%-15% tip in restaurants.
Lastly, in some European countries like Denmark, Finland, Sweden, tipping is inexistent or is very rare. Indeed, it seems not to suit at all to the Scandinavian people’s mentality.
Americas - Even if they are not the inventor of the tip, the USA are apparently the country of the tip. However, tipping can be different depending on the area and type of town but a general rise has been observed those last years, especially in the big cities. Hence, the norm has evolved from 15% to 17-20% at the restaurant place, whereas a $1 per drink is now the standard for a drink.
South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Venezuela) has followed the North American example but to a lesser extent (probably because of the living standard differences) since tips stand at 10% and $1-2 per round of drinks.
Asia - In most of the countries of the Asian continent a waiter won’t be offended if you haven’t given him a tip. It is simply not an Asian mentality. There are even some countries like Japan where it can be very insulting to give a tip: hence, most of the time, the waiters will refuse your tip (don’t be offended neither…)
However there are some places in Asia like Honk Kong and Bangkok were tips are appreciated or like in India where they are included in the bill (10%).
Australia & New Zealand - Tipping is not customary there and more and less a ‘’new’’ trend. Thus, most of the time it will be discretionary.
Africa - Tipping is standard practice in many parts of Africa but remains discretionary.
Middle-East - It is not actually a tip culture but rather and obviously a ‘’baksheesh’’ one. The acceptable norm is more and less around 10%.
Some Middle East countries such as Israel, Dubai and Jordan charge the service in the bill (10%).
Sources:
Msnbc
Telegraph.co.uk
Gosouthamerica.about.com
Linternaute.com
Wikipedia
Which.co.uk
Photo by Daquelle Manera
