TORONTO - Travelocity released the results of its 2009 Travel Rudeness Poll, highlighting poor hygiene, seat kicking and rowdy students as among Canadians' top travel peeves. Still, the North America-wide poll reveals that Canadians are predictably polite when it comes to dealing with certain vacation irritations.

"Travelocity.ca's assessment of travel annoyances provides an interesting and entertaining snapshot of the kind of bad travel behaviour that drives us all to distraction," commented Brian Simpson, General Manager of Travelocity.ca. "This year's results also highlight some interesting differences between Canadian and American travellers and those travelling with or without children."

Canadians and Americans are broadly similar in terms of the people and behaviour that annoys them on vacations. They generally agree about their least favourite fellow travellers during a flight; passengers with poor hygiene being the top pick (45 per cent of North Americans) and coughing or sneezing passengers coming in second (30 per cent of North Americans).

In terms of irritating on-board behaviour, Canadians are more irked by physical intrusions than their American counterparts. Fifty-nine per cent of Canadians chose "kicking the seat" as their top example of rude behaviour on board (compared to 50 per cent of Americans) while Americans consider "loud talking or swearing" to be the most inconsiderate in-flight behaviour, which came in second for Canadians. Thirty-five per cent of Canadians criticised fellow passengers who recline their seats all the way back (versus 28 per cent in the U.S.).

Other highlights of the poll include: Fellow Airline Passengers: - More than 80 percent of respondents feel that large passengers should be seated in two seats. However, more than one-third of respondents believe that the customer should be required to pay for that second seat while 44 percent believe the large passenger should be accommodated at no extra cost.

- Passengers wrestling with larger than allowed carry-on luggage topped the list of irritations when boarding a plane with 29 per cent of all poll respondents in agreement.

- Canadians are equally irritated by poor queue discipline as by over- sized bags. Twenty-nine per cent of respondents report they are most annoyed by people who crowd the boarding line, compared with only 20 per cent of U.S. travellers who took the poll.

- Rushing to deplane before others is the most annoying behaviour at the end of a flight with 53 per cent of Canadians and 59 per cent of Americans in agreement.

- Canadians are more annoyed than Americans to see other passengers leave their seats before the seat-belt sign is extinguished (13 per cent of Canadians; 9 per cent of Americans). Travelling with Children: - More than half of respondents think parents should remove a misbehaving child from a public setting and a significant third feel that such children should be reprimanded. Canadians are more likely to expect the parents to apologize to fellow guests for their child's behaviour (14 per cent versus 9 per cent U.S.).

- Canadians say the most bothersome fellow vacationers at their destination are "rowdy college students" (33 per cent Canadians; 24 per cent U.S.) while American travellers are considerably more irritated by "arguing families" (31 per cent U.S. versus 24 per cent Canadians).

- Boisterous kids are a common annoyance for travellers, but people travelling without children are twice as likely to be bothered by them (30 per cent) as those travelling with children in tow (15 per cent).

- Travellers with children have different peeves to those without, and are more likely to be bothered by topless sunbathers, men in Speedos and unattended kids at the pool.

The 2009 Travelocity Travel Rudeness Poll was conducted by online survey of 1,592 Travelocity customers in the U.S. and Canada, between July 29 and August 10, 2009. For the full results of the poll, go to www.travelocity.ca/rudeness.