The British government said Tuesday that an increasing number of their citizens vacationing abroad are being arrested or hurt in alcohol-fueled melees. The number of British citizens arrested in Spain jumped 33 percent to 2,032 between April 2006 and March 2007. Arrests were also up in Cyprus, where two Britons were recently sentenced to three years in prison for a road crash that killed one teenager and injured another.
Officials blamed the culture of binge drinking in Britain, where the pub culture historically has put an emphasis on drinking and not dining as in other European countries. "We are concerned that drink does play a part in a number of these situations," junior foreign minister Meg Munn told the BBC. Britain is one of the hardest-drinking countries in Europe, with an alcohol-related death rate that nearly doubled between 1991 and 2005, according to the British Medical Association. The rise of low-cost airlines may also contribute to the number of people traveling and partying abroad.
Spanish newspapers regularly run stories about Britons arrested for unruly or drunken behavior. Although Spain had the highest number of hospitalizations, Thailand was proportionally the most dangerous destination for British tourists, with 324 hospitalizations and 269 deaths during the same period. The British government said there were 3 million visits by Britons to Greece from 2006 to 2007, resulting in 230 arrests, 602 hospitalizations, 131 deaths and 28 reported rapes. Most arrests were for drunken and disorderly behavior and public indecency. (Yorkshire Post)
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