Despite
many of our idealistic dreams of basking in the sun under palm trees, kicking
our feet across sugar-sand beaches and dipping our toes into turquoise waters,
more than one in ten of us have missed out on visiting a particular holiday
destination because of a language barrier; that is according to new research
from Skyscanners.
It’s
no great surprise that many Brits don’t speak a foreign language, but what is
surprising is that many people are letting this affect their holiday plans,
which means they could be missing out on some amazing experiences worldwide.
In
fact this recent survey backs up our own independent research conducted in
March of this year, that confirmed that almost a quarter of Brits have never
been to a destination where they don’t speak the native language and some of
those would avoid visiting a country altogether for this very reason. So it seems that some people are letting
their fear of being unable to understand another language control their choice
of holiday destination.
Interestingly,
although the most commonly learned second language in the UK is French, it’s
actually the country that is most avoided by British travellers according to
Skyscanners’ research. So perhaps the
reasons for choosing certain locations aren’t quite so black and white? It’s possible that deep down these people do
want to venture further afield but if the language barrier is holding them
back, a visit across the Channel to France is perhaps no more adventurous than
a more ‘comforting’ trip to Wales or Scotland?
Perhaps
we should all follow in the footsteps of the Welsh population, who have been
cited in this survey as the most confident travellers in the UK and are the
least likely to allow the language barrier to impact their travel plans.
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