Fish and chips? Non, merci
Six out of 36 countries have rated British food as ‘very bad’ in a VisitBritain survey.
The harshest criticism came from, no surprise, the French, followed by the Germans, the Spanish, Italians, the Polish and the Belgians.
Countries which rated British food more highly included the Americans, Irish and Australians.
But despite their loathing of British food, the French are the largest source of tourism to the UK tourism league table, sending 3.8 million to Britain in 2009.
The Germans, meanwhile, are the fourth-largest, responsible for 2.8 million visitors.
“The paradox is that this indicates that either Britain’s other attractions vastly outweigh any reservations about food – or in fact they like what they find on their plate when they get here,” said a VisitBritain spokesman.
The traditional English Breakfast, however, was found to be a key attraction for visitors to the UK.
In a poll of 26,000 would-be travellers, all nationalities except for the Irish and Germans agreed with the statement ’I’ve always wanted to try a Full English Breakfast’.
Among those keenest to sample a full English breakfast are potential visitors from Russia, Brazil and India.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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