The UK's Daily Telegraph reported on September 24 that a poll indicates that geographical misconceptions and ignorance of overseas climate are widespread among adults in the UK and nearly one fifth of British people think it "never" rains in Africa。
In a poll conducted by online travel agency Sunshine.co.uk, nearly half of UK residents claimed it "rarely snows" anywhere in France, despite the French Alps attracting millions of skiers each winter, while one in eight people believed rainforests are found in Greenland。
More than 70 percent of respondents incorrectly stated it was "always hot" in the Sahara Desert – in fact temperatures at night often drop below freezing – and 17 percent said there were no volcanoes on the Canary Islands。
"Having carried out previous research into the misconceptions of people in the UK, we were keen to look into how knowledgeable people were of climates in other countries around the world," said Chris Brown, co-founder of Sunshine.co.uk。
In a previous survey in April, 54 percent of British people thought Timbuktu was an imaginary place, almost one in ten believed Kazakhstan did not exist, and more than a third claimed that Atlantis could be visited on a holiday to Greece。
In light of the new findings, Brown urged people to "do a bit of research" before venturing abroad。