Londonist always wonders what people mean when they come back from holiday saying "..oh and the people were ever so friendly".
What did they do? Buy you a pint, give you advice on your love life and offer to let you sleep on their sofa if you ever need somewhere to stay?
More often than not, "friendly" just means "not overtly antagonistic", which is why it's quite a shock to discover today that eight out of ten visitors to London rate us as either "very friendly" or "friendly".
The survey was carried out by Visit London, the official tourist organisation for the city, so you could say that they have some interest in making the London look appealing...but we'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.
Two years ago the 'friendly figure' was only at 75% which would seem to suggest that we're all becoming happier and shinier people...when it comes to tourists at least.
The nation that likes us best is North America, with 88% saying we're "just swell" (because that's how they talk in America).
The numbers fell sightly when it came to Australians, with just two thirds of them giving us the friendly thumbs up. That's probably something to do with us making all those 'conivct' jokes.
In even more surprising news (especially considering the recent, high profile shootings) more than two thirds of the people surveyed said they felt safer in London than Los Angeles, while over half said they felt safer than in New York.
