20 times travelers were caught behaving horribly during the pandemic

Sophie-Claire Hoeller,Monica HumphriesDec 31, 2020, 01:54 IST

An Austrian tourist broke the toes off a 200-year-old Italian sculpture while posing for a photo.Carabinieri Treviso/Handout/Reuters

While the global pandemic has nearly decimated the travel industry, it did little to dampen tourist misbehavior.
Tourists continued to deface ancient landmarks, such as Rome's Colosseum.
Others purposely broke quarantine or boarded planes after knowingly having tested positive for COVID-19, endangering others.

Flying often seems to bring out the worst in people, and tourists behaving badly is nothing new.

But while the global coronavirus pandemic has nearly decimated the travel industry - the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recorded some of the lowest passenger numbers of the past decade, seeing a 96% decrease in people passing through their checkpoints in April - it did little to dampen the poor behavior often associated with travel.

From dodging quarantine to knowingly flying with COVID-19 to breaking ancient sculptures for a selfie, keep scrolling to see some of the worst-behaved travelers of 2020.

A viral TikTok video shows one passenger sticking gum and candy into another passenger's hair.

It's unclear whether the TikTok video was staged or not. TikTok/Janelle Elise Flom

Three men were banned from Yellowstone National Park after trying to cook chickens in a hot spring.

The Minuteman Geyser Pool in Shoshone Geyser Basin at Yellowstone National Park. UniversalImagesGroup/Getty Images

Two passengers boarded a six-hour flight to Hawaii reportedly knowing they had tested positive for COVID-19.

The couple faces facing second-degree reckless-endangerment charges. Teresa Crawford/AP

An Austrian tourist broke the toes off a 200-year-old Italian sculpture while posing for a photo.

A screenshot of the surveillance footage and an image of the broken toes. Carabinieri Treviso/Handout/Reuters

A US tourist and her boyfriend were sentenced to prison for breaking Cayman Islands' mandatory 14-day quarantine.

A screenshot from the moment Skylar Mack was escorted to a police car after pleading guilty to breaking quarantine on the Cayman Islands. Cayman Compass / ABC 7 News

Surges of coronavirus cases were linked to travelers breaking quarantine to join pub crawls.

These incidents led to an increase in infections. Britta Pedersen/picture alliance /Getty Images

A woman who refused to wear a mask and coughed on fellow passengers while shouting 'Everybody dies' was kicked off a flight and arrested by airport police.

The woman was escorted off the plane after refusing to wear a mask. Shutterstock/Print Presstrend/YouTube

In the middle of the night, hundreds of skiers fled quarantine at a resort in the Swiss Alps.

The Alpine ski resort of Verbier, Switzerland, on December 5, amid the coronavirus disease outbreak. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

A man was arrested after strolling across a plane's wing right before it was bound to take off.

The man jumped an airport fence at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Twitter/ErinInWA

Rome's Colosseum was defaced by a tourist carving his initials into a 2,000-year-old pillar.

Italy's Carabinieri police in front of the Colosseum on June 1, 2020. Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Two passengers exited their plane by using the emergency slide as it was taxiing out to leave the airport.

The couple slid out of the plane (not pictured) alongside their service dog. Matus Duda/Getty Images/

In Canada, an American tourist broke quarantine not once, but twice, and could face a $570,000 fine.

Spray River in Banff National Park. Brian Kennedy/Getty Images

A traveler wanted 'to get some air,' so she opened a plane's emergency exit door and climbed onto the wing.

The woman has been banned from flying with Ukraine International Airlines. acilo/Getty Images

A woman hit an airline employee after she was barred from boarding her flight without a face mask.

The woman was arrested and charged with assault. 12 News/YouTube

Throughout the pandemic, hundreds of travelers have refused to wear masks on airplanes.

A woman wears a mask around her wrist. Paul Zinken/picture alliance via Getty Images

Several destinations, like Hawaii, have also faced a flood of tourists breaking quarantine to go exploring during the pandemic.

A beachgoer wearing a protective mask walks down Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii, on April 28, 2020. Reuters/Marco Garcia

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