Many years ago I was in Malaysia. One morning I was leaving my hotel to go see the town. As I got downstairs there was this bloke sitting having a beer (yes, it was 8:30 am) and watching the sports on the telly. I said hi and chat the chap up a bit. I learned that he was from the UK. I said "aren't you a long way from home to come here & just to drink beer and watch games which you could do at home."
He told me that for him it was cheaper to fly from UK to Malaysia, sit around & have a great holiday in the Malaysian heat and fly back than to spend the same time touring around in the UK."
Yes, I agree with him. The UK is not a cheap holiday. Perhaps this is why you find the British all over Spain, Portugal, Malta, etc. As a Canadian we have a very friendly and long historical association with the British Empire and now the Commonwealth. So much of our culture has long been associated with the UK., There is the Scottish explorers like Alexander Mackenzie, Simon Fraser, Irish fiddle music, Scottish bag pipes, Robbie Burns Day, St. Patrick Day just to mention a few. Of course, her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II is our figure headed leader; something that Americans could never understand after they had that "tea party."