This isn’t to say that American tourists are unwelcome in Europe. If anything, they are more important than ever. According to the European Travel Commission, the European Union received 30 million American visitors in 2019 alone—more than the number of tourists from China, Canada, and Australia combined. When I asked people working in Europe’s tourism industry about the ugly-American cliché, they told me that Americans give it more credence than locals do. “The perception of the American tourist is a little self-made,” Ettore Bellardini, a tour guide who works with English-speaking audiences in Rome, told me, noting that apart from some lighthearted jokes about American culinary habits (the propensity for ordering cappuccinos with dinner and ketchup with pasta being among the strangest), Italians have nothing but love for their American guests. “We can’t wait for Americans to come back.” “Only in America do you have the idea of the ugly American tourist,” said Jenkins, from the European Tourism Association. “Nobody hates tourists more than a fellow tourist. Running into a compatriot abroad is an acutely painful experience. It’s a bit like hearing your own voice.”