Do we really need to export our drinking habits?

A few years ago walking through the streets of San Sebastian, Spain, I stopped at a poster advertising Aussie pub crawls through the old quarter. The ancient, meandering neighbourhood of San Sebastian, the home of some of Spain's best cuisine, is a labyrinth of small bars which lay out their counters in the late afternoon with an array of tapas ranging from the delicious to the extraordinary. The poster advertised the pub crawl with a drawing of the famous statue of Saint Sebastian, the patron saint, holding a tinnie in each hand. At once, I felt embarrassed as a Spaniard and as an Aussie. In South European countries where drinking alcohol is encouraged but being drunk is frown upon companies offering Aussie styles pub crawls have proliferated in the last ten years.

That's not to say Spain hasn't got its own style of pub crawl, it's called "Tapeo" and it denotes going out to eat tapas while drinking. The main difference being that the culture of drinking in some European countries involves eating and a lot of conversation, consequently these countries do not have the need for alcohol sales restrictions that we have here. Beer is sold in most European MacDonalds. An Australian friend was amazed on a recent trip to Italy when she saw 99% proof alcohol for sale in supermarkets. She asked her Italian companion how this was so. “Because we’re adults,” he replied.

The sad story of a young men found dead in Rome this week during a pub crawl in a group of up to eighty people should make us ponder the image we are exporting of this wonderful but complicated and, at times, self destructive country when tourism agencies are desperate to lure more tourists here. Large groups of Aussies through some of the most beautiful streets in Europe with little aim apart from getting as blotto as quickly as possible. Photos of your trip are supposed to be keepsakes of yesteryear. Not a way to find out what you did last night.

Last year I took my two sons, seventeen and fifteen, to Madrid and they remarked often while there on the amount of people drinking at sidewalk cafes at two or three in the morning, drinking out of glass as an indication of the relaxed atmosphere. Accustomed already to sneaking s couple of alcopops to friends parties they were pleasantly surprised to find that at sixteen they could sit and have a drink in a bar with their father with no intention of abusing the adult privilege.

While we search for answers for our local alcohol induced violence problems a look at our drinking history is order. Australians from day one have learned to drink quickly before the alcohol ran out. In colonial times, the supply ships would bring rum from afar every six months and the colony would more or less stop to nurse the hangover and that was it for a drink for another six months. On to the six-o'clock swill, incomprehensible to younger people today, where pubs closed at six so for one hour after work it was drink as much as one could put away. Add to this our larrikin culture, disrespect for authority, up yours mentality, anti wowserism and we remove ourselves even further from dignified consumption.

The concept of a leisurely (civilized) bottle of wine over a long lunch has only been a recent acquisition here. It is worth observing that our idea of how much fun we have is measured by how little we can remember and is at odds with that of some European countries that once drunk you have stopped enjoying yourself.

Pub crawl companies have found a market in applying drinking habits here to an availability of alcohol that was developed in countries with more relaxed attitudes to drinking. That’s not to say that Europe hasn’t got it’s share of alcohol related problems but the custom of groups of eighty and up to one hundred and twenty backpackers walking through medieval streets with the sole aim of imbibing as much as possible is not a local one.

At a time when we are trying to find solutions to alcohol infused violence in our streets it is worth pondering whether we would be better off importing other cultures drinking habits than exporting our own. It seems a shame to spend all that money traveling abroad or coming to our sunny shores only to find that you blanked out half of the trip. If our drinking culture refuses to grow up I suggest the new tourism slogan should be “Australia. Get That Into Ya.”.