“What is Yorkshire” and “does Great Britain have the death penalty” are among the most common questions for visitors asked by visitors to the UK, according to Google data.
Researchers in 13 countries, including America, New Zealand, Poland, Germany and South Africa, collated the top autocomplete suggestions for queries about the UK and the most-visited places within it, such as London, Edinburgh and the Lake District.
Surprisingly, rhe most common searches for Britain’s major cities had nothing to do with culture or entertainment and were almost exclusively focused on the availability of Uber and airport wifi.
Some nations are more interested in the welcome they’ll receive once here. Polish and Spanish people in particular are very concerned about their safety before visiting the UK, with most searches from these countries related to safety.
Canadians want to know if London has Walmart, Americans want to know if Great Britain rules Canada and Australians want to know if Scotland has bears.
Germany just wants to know if England even has a summer!
Top autocomplete suggestions by country
- What is Yorkshire? – Germany
- Does England… have snakes? – New Zealand
- Does Scotland… have bears? – Australia
- Does London…have Uber? – USA, Australia & South Africa
- Does the Lake District have wifi? – New Zealand
- Does London have a port? – Belgium
- Does Manchester…have safety concerns? – Spain
- Does Birmingham…zoo have wifi? – Canada
- Does the Lake District… have a beach? – America
- Does the Lake District… have many lakes?
Regan McMillan, director of Kiwi Movers, believes the results reflect the different priorities of travellers around the world. He said: “Taking the queries as a whole, it seems people want to know that they can get about, stay connected and be safe when they come to the UK. Non-English speakers in particular appear concerned with safety in the big UK cities.
“But if you dig a little deeper, it becomes quite clear that there’s a lot of confusion about what the UK is like and how the UK actually works.
“The fact that people need to check whether Great Britain accepts Euros, has the death penalty or a president show that the way of life over here isn’t as well understood as we might have believed.”