Can you believe that half a million people took an Uber to London department store Selfridges in 2021? That makes it not just the ride-share company’s most visited destination in London, but its most popular in all of Europe. That data comes from Uber itself, which has just released its breakdown of stats for the number of rides, ratings and destinations on the app last year.
Selfridges beat out more conventional London tourist attractions such as the London Eye and Buckingham Palace, as well as Paris hotspots like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. Measured by number of rides, London was Uber’s top city in Europe, with especially big numbers heading to financial commuter hubs like Broadgate Circle, the Bank of England and Canary Wharf, as well as super-clubs like Fabric and Ministry of Sound.
So, why are so many people so keen to go to Selfridges? Honestly, we’re not entirely sure. Selfridges is a famously huge department store that is as well known for its bright yellow bags as its eye-watering prices. And now we think about it, Selfridges may have come out top not because of tourism, but perhaps because a lot of the people who regularly shop there prefer private Ubers to public transport.
When it came to outside Europe, the only tourist attraction more popular than Selfridges with Uber users was the Empire State Building in New York, with California’s Disneyland also in the top five.
But there’s more to a taxi experience than just the big numbers. When it came to the city with the highest average Uber driver rating, the eastern French watchmaking capital of Besançon was top. Apparently, the average driver rating in Besançon is a perfect five stars. In the UK, Belfast had the highest user score with 4.9 stars. But is it due to better drivers or kinder passengers doing the rating? Guess we’ll never know.