Where did you say you were going on holiday?

Brits have displayed an amazing lack of geographical knowledge in a survey conducted by FlyResearch for travel website Laterooms.com.

Two thirds of people could not correctly identify all 48 countries in Europe, including almost half (45 per cent) who could not point out Switzerland on a map. What's more, when it came to "famous" destinations such as the Costa Brava, 81 per cent of people could not locate it on a map.

More than one in ten people were not aware that Iceland is part of the continent of Europe, and 19 per cent of people didn't know that Britain were members of the European Union (EU).

Alan Gilbert, professor of Geography at UCL, comments: "Despite the ease of modern travel in Europe, people's knowledge about the world has possibly declined; it has certainly not improved.

"Today, many people do not know where major rivers flow, the names of capital cities or even whether countries are in Europe, Africa or Asia. Of course, the world is now a much more complicated place, for example, there are now many more countries, but our lack of knowledge about the world is surprising given that we now have instant access to information about virtually everything."

Caravan and motor home owners are part of only 38 per cent of the population who look at European destinations on a map before departing for their holiday, and now that 'SatNav' prices are dropping, seven million people said that they couldn't even remember the last time they looked at a map, much less an atlas, at all.

15/05/2008 15:14:59