According to new figures, published today by the Foreign Office (FO), the number of Britons arrested in countries like Spain, France and Cyprus has soared. But it isn't just the sun-kissed resorts of the Mediterranean where holidaymakers are getting into trouble. Similar problems have been reported in the United Sates and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while Thailand is now the country where British travellers are most likely to end up in hospital.

More than 2,000 Britons were arrested in Spain between April 2006 and March this year, up 32 per cent on the previous year, while the number of people arrested in France rose 42 per cent to 153.

Many of the arrests abroad were due to what the FO describes as "behaviour caused by excessive drinking", further compounding our already sullied image. But why, after so many lurid headlines and warnings about misbehaving abroad, is the problem still getting worse?

Sharron Livingstone, editor of Travel Magazine, believes there are a number of reasons behind it. "We have strict drink-driving laws but when Brits go abroad they sometimes become flippant and get that holiday feeling of 'I can do what I like', but they forget that other countries have strict laws as well."

Another key factor, she argues, is the emergence of low-cost airlines which has led to a clamour for exotic stag and hen weekends on the Continent. "This is a modern phenomenon that didn't exist before we had the low-cost airlines, which has given rise to this perceived rise in bad behaviour."

But she believes the rising cost of airline tickets could lead to a decline in the number of Britons being arrested. "It will be interesting to see what happens next year when the cost of flying goes up, because if there are fewer people travelling abroad, there will be fewer incidents."

David Segel, managing director of West End Travel, thinks the problem is now endemic. "It's almost become something of a sport and it's got worse over the past few years. Places like Faliraki and Aia Napa got a reputation as somewhere to go if you want a wild time," he says.

"We always advise people to respect the country they're in and to remember that they have their own laws that might be different from ours. But the problem is a lot of young people lose their inhibitions and their behaviour goes down the drain."

The plague of British bad behaviour abroad is often blamed on our drinking culture which, it is argued, is simply transferred to places like Greece and Spain where the plentiful supply of cheap drink and sunshine creates a potent cocktail. What's also true is that more teenagers and twenty-somethings can now afford, thanks to the low-cost airlines, the kind of holidays that past generations could only dream about.

But can the growing number of arrests be blamed simply on a minority of testosterone-fuelled youngsters? Francis Duke, of the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta), says in many countries the police are cracking down on any kind of anti-social behaviour. "There has been a policy of zero tolerance introduced in places like Spain and the UAE so we are finding more people are being arrested."

Another problem is that many resorts are geared towards young people. "There's bars offering free drinks and happy hours which creates an atmosphere where loud, rowdy behaviour is accepted. What we need to do is encourage people to enjoy themselves without breaking the law," he said.

But Abta doesn't believe that drunkenness abroad is a solely British affliction. "People from all over northern Europe descend on the Mediterranean resorts including Germans and Scandinavians, so it's not a peculiarly British problem."

Sharron Livingstone thinks that we are still being blamed for past misdemeanours. "I think the British do get a hard time which you can trace back to the football hooligans who gave us a bad reputation years ago. So now when people abroad see young Britons getting drunk, even if it's just a bit of high spirits, it just compounds that image."

So how can we restore some semblance of national pride? "I think education has a role to play, because even though English is spoken in a lot of countries these places have their own culture and etiquette which people don't always realise. But if this was somehow incorporated into school lessons and young people became more aware of what's acceptable and what isn't, then the next generation of travellers hopefully won't have the same kind of problems."