SeaChange?s ?Pearl Bay? most commonly mistaken TV town
Aussies are mixing up their TV guide and travel guide according to a nationwide survey by Hotels.com, the global hotel expert.
Just under one in three Australians (29 per cent) believe ?Summer Bay?, the fictional setting of one of Australia?s longest running television soaps, Home & Away, is an Australian tourist destination. A further quarter (27 per cent) say they would consider visiting ?Summer Bay? for their next holiday.
Only one in ten (13 per cent) of Aussies think ?Erinsborough?, the home of Australia?s other long-running soap, Neighbours, is a real place. And, for those that do, it isn?t as appealing a holiday destination as ?Summer Bay?, with only one in twenty (five per cent) saying they want to visit ?Erinsborough? for a holiday.
?Pearl Bay?, the home of popular ABC series, SeaChange, was the most commonly mistaken TV town, with one in three (33 per cent) Aussies believing it is an Australian tourist destination. Perhaps most surprising, approximately one in four Aussies (23 per cent) believe that ?Wandin Valley?, the fictional birthplace of television series A Country Practice, which was axed almost twenty years ago, is a real tourist destination.
Katherine Birch, Head of Marketing, Hotels.com Australia & New Zealand, said: ?To avoid the risk of creating a real life drama of their own, it?s always a good idea for travellers to use the internet or a good old-fashioned map to research which of the fantastic real-life holiday destinations across Australia they plan to visit.?
The top mistaken fictional TV destinations are:
| RANK | CITY |
| 1. | Pearl Bay (SeaChange) |
| 2. | Wandin Valley (A Country Practice) |
| 3. | Summer Bay (Home & Away) |
| 4. | Fountain Lakes (Kath & Kim) |
| 5. | Mt Thomas (Blue Heelers) |
Source: hotels.com