Edinburgh is Istanbul, Newcastle is Sydney, Liverpool is Vancouver, Birmingham is Frankfurt and Cardiff is Stockholm; these are just some of the bizarre answers given by Britons when asked to identify the UK’s most popular cities skylines - a new travel report has revealed.
The pictorial study conducted by hotel chain Travelodge quizzed 5,000 British adults to see whether they could identify the skyline of Britain’s largest cities against some of the world’s most visited cities.
The skyline head to head test revealed more British adults could easily pinpoint international city skylines but struggled to identify the skyline of cities which lie on their own door step.
Some of the key research findings revealed that 65% of Britons failed to recognise the iconic skyline of Liverpool, which includes the famous Royal Liver building overlooking the river Mersey. The building once famous for the TV sitcom The Liver Birds is also the symbol of the city. Forty five per cent of respondents thought the birthplace of the Beatles was the coastal harbour city in British Columbia, Canada – Vancouver.
Over half of British adults (51%) struggled to identify Scotland’s famous capital city skyline which includes Edinburgh Castle – a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city. A fifth of adults thought the historic Edinburgh skyline belonged to Turkey’s largest city Istanbul.
The skyline of Newcastle the home city of Cheryl Cole and Ant and Dec was mistaken by 27% of respondents for Australia’s showcase city, Sydney. Fifteen per cent of adults identified the city as Bristol.
Six out of ten respondents could not recognise the UK’s second largest city – Birmingham. A fifth of respondents identified Brum – the gamma-world city as Frankfurt.
A fifth of Britons struggled to identify their capital city’s skyline and one in ten thought the London backdrop belonged to New York.
Listed below are further key findings from the skyline study:
• Eight out of ten British adults could not identify Scotland’s largest city’s skyline, a third of respondents thought Glasgow, the city situated on the river Clyde was Prague – the capital city of Czech Republic.
• Sixty two per cent of Britons could not identify Wales capital city’s skyline correctly a fifth of respondents thought it was Stockholm, Sweden’s capital city. A third of adults thought Wales largest city skyline belonged to Manchester.
• Three quarters of Britons could not identify Sheffield’s city skyline, 32% thought England’s steel city was Hungary’s largest city Budapest.
• Seventy one per cent of respondents could not identify Bristol’s skyline and 28% of adults thought the city based in the South West of England was Amsterdam.
• Fifty nine per cent of Britons could not identify the skyline for Leeds – the UK’s largest centre for business, legal and financial services outside of London. Forty four per cent of respondents thought the city was Belgium’s capital city Brussels.
• Sixty five per cent of British adults could not identify the city of York’s skyline and 23% of respondents thought the walled city was
Bruges.
• Fifty nine percent of British Adults could not recognise Manchester’s skyline and 38% thought the city was Madrid.
• Sixty nine per cent of Britons could not identify the skyline for Oxford and over a third of respondents (36%) thought the city was Vienna.
Shakila Ahmed, Travelodge Spokeswoman said: “This report has highlighted that Britons need to reacquaint themselves with some of the UK's great cities. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city and no two skylines are alike. It’s shocking that more Britons could easily recognise international city skylines but struggled to identify the skylines of cities that lie on their own doorstep.
We have 66 very different cities in the UK ranging from gothic, medieval, contemporary to cosmopolitan. If we do not invest in discovering the cities that make Great Britain so great, these cities will be lost to future generations."
Listed below are the results when respondents were asked to identify well known international city skylines:
• Seventy per cent of respondents identified Istanbul’s skyline
• Eight out of ten Britons identified Rome’s skyline
• Eighty nine per cent of British adults identified San Francisco’s skyline
• Ninety five per cent of Britons identified Sydney’s skyline
• Eighty six per cent of respondents identified New York’s skyline
• Ninety three per cent of Britons identified Paris’s skyline
• Eighty six per cent of British adults identified Dubai’s skyline
• Eighty eight per cent of Britons identified Barcelona’s skyline
The table below highlights the results from the cities skyline head to head test
UK’s top ten biggest cities
% of Britons who could not identify the city skyline
London - 20%
Birmingham - 60%
Glasgow - 80%
Liverpool - 65%
Manchester - 59%
Leeds - 59%
Sheffield - 75%
Edinburgh - 51%
Bristol - 71%
Cardiff - 62%
To help Britons discover the UK’s great cities, Travelodge is offering 139,000 rooms from £19 to £29 for stay dates throughout August and September 2011.
In addition the hotel chain has created a series of free city guides which give detailed information on how to explore the following cities for free: London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Birmingham and Leeds. The guides can be downloaded for free at www.travelodge.co.uk – just go to the news and offers section at the site.
End
Notes to editors:
The pictorial study was conducted with 5,000 Britons in July 2011