A recent survey of over 1,000 people by Skyscanner found that the UK was seen as more of a turn-off than turn-on when it came to romantic destinations.
Italy took first place in the survey with a third of votes compared to the UK which received only a paltry 3% of votes. France and the Caribbean took second and third place respectively.
Spain followed in fourth place, but took the top spot as the favoured country for a holiday romance with one in five of Brits who had a holiday fling admitting to doing so in Spain – though none of these holiday romances took place with a Spaniard.
In fact, despite the UK itself being thought an unromantic destination, 49% of those who admitted to having a holiday romance actually shared the fling with another person from the British Isles – 37% with English, 6% with Irish and 5% with Scots.
The most romantic act – that of the marriage proposal – also threw up some interesting results when users were asked where they would most like this to happen. Surprisingly, and in spite of the UK’s otherwise unromantic performance, Scotland was voted as the fourth most appealing place for a Valentine’s Day proposal with “camping under the stars in Scotland” even beating a visit to New York’s Empire State Building – scene of the classic scene in movie Sleepless in Seattle.
England did not fare so well with a cruise on the Thames coming in the bottom three, perhaps showing that it is England that is viewed as an unromantic destination rather than the UK as a whole.
However the romantic heavyweight countries of Italy and France took the top spots, with nearly a quarter of all respondents in the survey saying they would choose a gondola ride in the romantic Italian city of Venice as their ideal spot for a proposal.
The top five destinations for the ultimate Valentine’s Day proposal were:
1. Gondola in Venice
2. Eiffel Tower, Paris
3. Spanish Steps, Rome
4. Under the stars on a camping trip, Scotland
5. Empire State Building, New York
The survey received over 1,000 responses featuring over 40 countries, ranging from popular European destinations to far flung hot spots such as the Cook Islands and Indonesia.
The top ten most romantic countries were:
1. Italy (33%)
2. France (19%)
3. Caribbean (9%)
4. Spain (4%)
5. Greece (4%)
6. Thailand (3%)
7. UK (3%)
8. South Africa (2%)
9. Austria (2%)
10. Croatia (2%)
