Iconic UK landmark named one of world’s most disappointing – branded ‘touristy’ | Travel News | Travel
With summer rapidly approaching, many holidaymakers will be planning their itinerary for travel. But according to new research, some tourist attractions are not worth the trip – and one of them is right here in the UK.
CasiMonka sought to uncover which tourist attractions are the world’s biggest letdowns by running negative and positive comments on Reddit Google reviews through AI sentiment analysis.
In third position – and first for the UK – was the ancient mystery monument of Stonehenge in Salisbury, Wiltshire. This tourist attraction scores 73.86/100 for biggest tourist attraction letdown. Shockingly, it has had 342 negative words related to travel comments and 77 negative words related to travel. Some of the most common negative comments include ‘expensive’ (82 times) and ‘touristy’.
However, it’s not all bad news. This prehistoric monument has a four-star rating on TripAdvisor and plenty of positive reviews from people who have enjoyed their visit, including one person who wrote: “Surreal feeling seeing the stones. Take a tour bus from Salisbury train station and then another bus from the visitor center at Stonehenge. Have audio info as you walk around. Half day required for the visit. Also visit the Salisbury cathedral.”
Another said: “We enjoyed our time at Stonehenge very much. It was nice that we had the option of walking or taking the bus out to the monument. Plenty of history and explanation in the museum and the audio tour. Nice gift store and loved that there was a place to grab food and a hot beverage afterwards.”
While some are disappointing, visiting Stonehenge allows you to learn about it’s mysterious history.
While no one knows exactly why the stones are there, the most recent research from a team of archaeologists theorises it was built as a way to unify ancient peoples from across the country.
The Independent reports that the research, published on Thursday in the journal Archaeology International, hints that the blocks to build the monument could have been brought in by hundreds or thousands of people from as far as Scotland with the entire journey likely taking nearly eight months.