I don't usually think of the UK as being a beach destination other than possibly Brighton. I'm from the USA but I'm a hopeless Anglophile. I can't imagine places like Canterbury, Hereford, and Leicester not being on a must see list for international tourists.
I think the beaches of the West Country, i.e. Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset, would certainly be considered to have great beaches, as would the coast around many other places in the UK, e.g. the Gower or Pembrokeshire in South Wales, Bournemouth, Northumberland, East Anglia. It's certainly not restricted to Brighton which no doubt picks up a lot of London visitors.
I'm also an Anglophile and I tried Blackpool, Nottingham, Stratford-upon-Avon, Dover, Exeter, Coventry, Banbury, Windsor, etc. I guess the cities and towns I read about in the classics and historical romances are not big tourist destinations.
As an Australian I've been to beach towns all over UK and USA and I can tell you that they are all great places for history, architecture, culture and basically anything except for beaches.
Not sure why you didn't expect so much interest in Scotland. It's easily the most attractive part of the UK - and I speak as someone born and bred in England. What I always find surprising is how dominant London is in the figures. It's a place that I generally avoid whenever possible.
Some people like big cities, others the outdoors and lots of nature. Im part of the 2nd category, big cities can be ok, but for a day or 2 for a nice pub or live music (thoughh you can get that in smalls towns too)
15 million of those tourists went to Buckingham palace, the people who didn't go to there were probably business men/women. The palace is surrounded by Green Park, for people who don't like cities, it is most likely a nice place to go.
The source is a UK-government-funded one called VisitBritain that incorporates Northern Irish data into its stats. I would suggest you argue with them.
In this quiz, there isn't a difference, because no Northern Irish cities appear in the list anyway. But if Belfast, Londonderry etc were eligible, then "UK" would be more accurate than "British" here.
The description specifies United Kingdom. Cities in Northern Ireland can still be called British even though they're not technically in Britain. British = from the UK.
People sure do love to argue about issues that arent there (no cities from Northern Ireland. Maybe the original poster got mixed up and thought the quiz was supposed to be about England and wondered why there were Scottish cities on here or something. And the rest used the opportunity to complain regardless)
I'd always assumed British meant anyone from the British Isles, but that includes Ireland, too, so I guess my assumption was incorrect. I found two different definitions online - one said British was anyone from Great Britain, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, the Hebrides, and many other surrounding islands. Another definition said it was people from the UK.
UK = United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain = England, Wales and Scotland. Ireland = the island of Ireland, comprising Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland (a different country). Isle of Man and Channel Islands = British Crown dependencies: not part of the UK but British citizens. Hope this helps!
Dover appears further down the stats. The majority of people don't actually pass through Dover on entry - the Channel Tunnel route just skims the town, and goes on to Folkestone, so rail and car passengers can't really be counted as visiting.
I was surprised some of the Welsh seaside towns (Tenby, Llandudno, etc.) didn't make it onto the list, but then neither did many English ones (Blackpool, Scarborough, Whitby, etc.). Must be that they're strongly favoured by UK visitors as opposed to overseas visitors.
I wonder how they work this out? International tourists is easy because they are counted at the border, but no-one "checks-in" and "checks-out" of individual cities like this. Haworth in Yorkshire has heaps of foreign tourists (it's near Wuthering Heights of Bronte sisters fame), and how about Dover, where lots of people enter the UK?
Very difficult, for sure. Even places that have a hotel registry system - with a bed tax for international tourists, for example - still miss daytrippers, which many of these places and others would get lots of.
For Haworth, it's a little bit like Stratford or Canterbury. A lot of people go there, but it seems a bigger crowd than it actually is because of the comparatively small scale of the towns. But I agree with you on Dover, tried it along with Folkestone and Grimsby because those three towns are the entry point of the bulk of Northern European tourists in Great Britain.
Was wondering this too - I used to work in St. Davids which is always massively packed with tourists during the summer, but is comparatively small in itself. I think coastal and rural areas must tend to have smaller numbers overall as tourism is highly seasonal and weather-dependent, whereas in cities there's more to do outside of the summer.
i literally have never heard of Haworth, and I doubt there are heaps of foreign tourists because of an obscure book which is barely relevant in non Anglo countries.
Given the popularity and number of film adaptations of most of the books by the Bronte sisters, and the popularity in the USA as well as the UK, I don't think it's fair to call them 'obscure'. And there are a lot of translations too
Maybe at the expense of London? Would be interested how many actually visited the City of London - suspect it'd still be second, but behind Westminster
Surprised that Southampton gets more international tourists than Pompey, considering that Portsmouth has the historic naval docks and are well worth a visit (while there's nothing of that level of tourist attraction in Soton).
NEC and the ICC and Symphony Hall. There is way more to see in Birmingham anyway than one might suppose - and for a major city, it is very compact with everything in walking distance. Communications to and from the airport are by far the best in the whole UK
Exactly, they count overnight stays, it can be holidays, conference, business, festivals, sports, health, it doesn't matter for the basic easily collected statistics. For more you need a survey.
The description specifies United Kingdom. Cities in Northern Ireland can still be called British even though they're not technically in Britain. British = from the UK."
This is not really correct. British/Britain is a rather vague term. The Isle of Man for example is not part of the UK but its citizens are British. You can make the case that Northern Ireland is part of Britain, if not the island of Great Britain.
I came across this quiz today, and thought it felt familiar... as I'd just taken this one. Not often you see 2 nearly-identical featured quizzes, and they were only 3 apart in my untaken list!
I think I commented before that I was surprised to not see Belfast on here. Comment seems to have gone missing now, or maybe it was on a different quiz. I have a few friends who visited Belfast. None that have been to Brighton.
Surprised Salisbury didn't make the list. It's very popular with Russian assassins who always make a point of visiting its spectacular cathedral and its tall spire.
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I have memorized it!
"bmjs98 +3 level 47 Jul 19, 2017
The description specifies United Kingdom. Cities in Northern Ireland can still be called British even though they're not technically in Britain. British = from the UK."
This is not really correct. British/Britain is a rather vague term. The Isle of Man for example is not part of the UK but its citizens are British. You can make the case that Northern Ireland is part of Britain, if not the island of Great Britain.
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Edit:
Also, looked at the detailed data, and Belfast probably does get in, but all NI is grouped together so it doesn't count.