Touts

Those annoying hustlers and how to avoid them

Everywhere you go you will be pestered by touts—people who approach you trying to sell a good or service—most commonly a hotel or other lodging, a tour, or a taxi ride.

Touts flock around tourist sights and especially points of entry (airports, train stations, bus terminals, and ferry docks).

Touts are extremely annoying, and they increase exponentially once you venture beyond North America, Europe, or Oceania.

A few are actually legit, but even most of those represent tourist businesses too crummy to drum up business any other way. The louder or more insistent they are, the less likely they are to be running a legitimate business.

Luckily, touts are the easiest scam to see coming—and the easiest to avoid: just ignore them.

Don't talk to them at all—not even to say "No, thank you." That only encourages them.

Also, avoid eye contact.

The less you engage, the sooner they will stop trying to get past your stony wall of silence and circle back to try flogging their wares or services on the next tourist.

Just push past them firmly and get on with your vacation.