[Symbiote]

Pounds have reasonable acceptance in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia -- many of those countries either used to be part of the British Empire or a neighbour, so there's trade, emigration, etc. Probably the Caribbean too, though I haven't been there.

In most cases e.g. a French tourist would be fine taking euros, but a British tourist can take pounds and not pay to convert to dollars or euros first.

[machinima40]

Really? Pls back this up with a citation or example. Name one country in those places or outside of Britain for that matter where british pounds are accepted as currency - today and not 1950

[Symbiote]

I wrote "reasonable acceptance". You can pay for a taxi, a good quality/touristy restaurant or a safari. You can easily exchange sterling for local currency at banks or currency exchange offices.

Kenya and Egypt are two examples.