Some 13 per cent of the British people think that Moldova is somewhere in Asia, South America or Africa. Research commissioned by the UK's leading accommodation website, LateRooms.com, showed that 63 per cent of British adults can identify less than half of the countries in Europe.

According to the study, many respondents hadn't even heard of some countries - more than one in ten (11 per cent) believe that Iceland isn't in Europe (8 per cent thought it was part of North America) and 13 per cent think that Moldova is somewhere in Asia, South America or Africa.

Although more than 55 million Brits travel to Europe each year, the majority of travelers hop on and off planes and trains with no idea about where they are going, ie: the exact location of their destination within Europe.

More than half (62 per cent) of UK adults confess that they don't even check a map to see where in Europe they are going before traveling to their destination. 16 per cent of adults (the equivalent of 7 million) admitted that they can't even remember when they looked at a map, 8 per cent of adults (the equivalent of nearly 4 million) last looked at a map when helping their child with their homework and 4 per cent confessed that the last time that they looked at a map of Europe was in a school geography lesson.

Many British adults could not find the most popular European destinations on a map, including Switzerland (45 per cent), Spain (15 per cent), France (11 per cent) and Italy (8 per cent) even though the majority have visited at least one of these countries on holiday.

Some 60 per cent thought there were less than 30 countries in Europe (there's at least 47!) and an uninformed 19 per cent didn't even realize that Britain is part of the European Union.

Least Known European Destinations are: Lithuania (81 per cent), Slovakia (80 per cent), Romania (78 per cent), Ukraine (71 per cent), Croatia (71 per cent).//// Reporter.MD


Publication date: 17 May 2008   

Source:

Archive