A Chinese football fan attending the FIFA World Cup in the United States was shocked by the tipping culture at a local restaurant.
It started with an $8 beer. The bill already included an 18% service charge, but when he went to pay, the POS terminal prompted him to leave another 22% tip—even though the server had done little more than place the beer on his table.
In recent years, complaints about what many travelers describe as "out-of-control" tipping culture have spread across Chinese social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu. From Thailand and Laos to Europe and Latin America, tipping has become a common frustration for Chinese travelers in many destinations outside the East Asian cultural sphere.
During the World Cup, some restaurants in cities such as New York and Kansas City have gone a step further by automatically adding a 20% service charge to bills, aiming to ensure that international football fans contribute tips.
For many tourists, the problem is that they are unfamiliar with local customs but worry about appearing rude. Faced with a foreign language, unfamiliar currency, and only a few seconds to decide, it is difficult to judge what constitutes an appropriate tip.
The less travelers understand the local rules, the more likely they are to mistake a business's expectations for an established cultural norm.
Behavioral economics offers a simple explanation: the default effect. When a payment screen presents preset options such as 18%, 20%, and 25%, many people instinctively assume all of them fall within the acceptable range, with the middle option often feeling like the safest choice.
For many Chinese travelers, there is another layer of pressure. As visitors unfamiliar with local etiquette, they are often reluctant to refuse what can feel like increasingly aggressive requests for tips. In East Asian cultures, where the fear of causing offense or embarrassment runs deep, paying in front of others can make it even harder to leave a smaller amount—or no tip at all.
As the global economy slows, tipping expectations continue to rise, adding another burden to outbound travel.
For Chinese tourists, overseas travel has already become significantly more expensive, with airfares, hotels, and dining all costing far more than they did just a few years ago. Against that backdrop, restaurants known for charging hefty tips have increasingly become the targets of travel warnings and “avoid” posts on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu.
