Tipping customs in different cultures

It’s an issue guaranteed to cause consternation among many travelers. To tip or not to tip? And how much? That’s because tipping customs vary from country to country around the world and while it can obviously be perceived as an insult to not tip enough in some places, it can also be an insult to tip at all in other locales.

This travel story discusses the topic:

Business travelers’ confusion is understandable, says Lynn Staneff who compiled a tipping guide for 70 countries for Magellan’s, which sells travel supplies from two California stores and a Web site.

Tipping is common in some countries, not done in others, or only done in some cities, she says…According to her guide, tipping is not practiced in 11 countries – Brunei, Malaysia, Japan, Oman, New Zealand, Samoa, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

In most countries, travelers are expected to tip to a waiter or waitress 10 percent, pay the equivalent of $1 per bag to a porter and round the taxi fare to the next unit of the local currency.

Many countries in Asia and Western Europe add a service charge to a restaurant check, exempting diners from tipping, Forni, the author, says. In Japan, Staneff says, tipping is perceived as insulting.

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