“Brandons Beach Barbados” drew an estimated 3,600 Google searches a month in the United States, 50% more than either Accra Beach or Carlisle Bay, its nearest rivals. In the UK and Canada, Accra took first place. Yet the UK and the US recorded the same number of monthly searches for Accra, at 2,400 apiece. What set the US results apart was the strength of interest in Brandons.
The figures come from Beaches of Barbados, an independent island guide that analysed Google Keyword Planner estimates for the same 49 beach and bay terms in each market between October 2025 and September 2026. Each term included the word “Barbados”.
Butterfly Beach produced one of the more striking results. It came second in the UK with 1,900 searches a month, more than three times the 590 recorded in the US, despite the much larger US population. The order also flipped for Mullins and Crane. In the UK, Mullins drew 1,600 searches to Crane’s 480. In the US, Crane led Mullins by 1,300 to 1,000.
Canada’s results illustrate a practical challenge for anyone marketing the island. Accra Beach led with 1,900 monthly searches, while Rockley Beach, another name for the same stretch of coast, drew 880, level with Carlisle Bay. The researchers kept the two names separate because Google’s rounded estimates can include close variants. For a visitor comparing hotels or planning a day out, simply putting both names on a map or in a hotel guide could clear up the confusion.
Search volumes reveal which names people look up. They cannot establish how many people visit a beach, and some searches may concern a nearby hotel or business. For tourism operators, their value lies earlier in the trip, when a traveller knows one beach by name and is deciding where else to go.
As Chris Clayton, founder of Beaches of Barbados, put it: “A familiar name can start the holiday research, but it shouldn’t have to define the whole trip.”
