Friday 5 April 2013

UK holidaymakers are missing out on certain holiday destinations


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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