Worrying about the potential dangers that await you in a foreign country can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you haven’t traveled extensively. The best approach to this fear is to remember that your worries are often exaggerated by the unknown element of traveling abroad.
Thinking about your safety while planning your trip will inevitably lead to increased paranoia, but ignoring any potential risks only increases your chances of being robbed or worse.
Look at it this way, Australia has many visitors and travelers arriving every year and they will have many worries about traveling to their homeland. Talk to any British backpacker and they’ll be quietly shitting on snakes and sharks, killer rips (thanks Bondi Rescue), jellyfish and huge unforgivable landscapes and not even mentioning spiders. Many are seriously concerned that they will be bitten by any of the many deadly insects that call Australia home and spend their last minutes of life in unimaginable pain. This is not to say that the danger does not exist, but for those of us who live here it is not really a daily concern. The unknown and exaggerated can generate these types of concerns.
What I mean is that any danger is amplified in our heads because it is locked in a great unknown and terrifying world. So when you are planning your trip to a distant land, how concerned should you be for its safety?
First of all, it is worth saying that there are some real risks and, in some parts of the world, they are so important that you need to consider whether it is worth traveling there. These are usually caused by political instability, general high levels of violent crime, or it may be that a single girl is at higher risk than usual.
For most places popular with Australians and other tourists, the threat to your personal safety will vary, but like at home, common sense and knowledge of local conditions are the best defense when it comes to your personal safety.
Perhaps the biggest dangers you face on the road are common accidents. This could be in the form of a traffic accident beyond your control or an incident involving you, alcohol, or drugs. When you ask, is it safe there? It might be worth asking the same question before using the local transportation offered in places like Africa, South America, and Nepal / India.
You may have no choice but to ride a little bus full of dodgy stuff – but this is probably a much higher risk in most places than violent crime. The same goes for drugs or drinking in any big city; at home or abroad is always a risk.
When it comes to minor crimes; like the loss of your valuables and travel scams, so yes, in some places there is a decent chance that you will be the victim of some kind of theft. The probability that this robbery is violent is usually low. The same goes for travel scams, which are another common form of tourist scam from Rome to Mumbai. These scams generally involve fast talking scammers rather than a quick right hand at the head.
Violent crime does happen, but you have to be very unlucky or have low levels of common sense, as it is quite rare in Asia and Europe and not as common in African and South American countries as you might think (with honorable exceptions). Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America are places where robberies happen during the day, but this is a risk that is minimized simply by having nothing of value on your person, or as little as possible.
For these types of places, do your homework and know where the risk areas are in your chosen destination. Inquire at your hotel, read your guidebook, and be on the lookout for not being alarmed (as a fridge magnet once says). Choose not to wander alone day or night, and avoid getting angry and walking home from the local pub (taxi!). Using an ATM at 3am in places like Rio, Cape Town, or Nairobi? You can also take that money and donate it to charity.
Ask hotel or hostel staff about safe taxis and stay alert wherever you are. As a tourist you are a target because you are likely to have more money than the locals and are easily spotted, so use common sense and don’t flaunt your cash and take as little as possible with you when you are away from home.
Many cities will have well-defined tourist areas with a high concentration of hotels / hostels to house the healthy. This area can be safe, but in many cities, moving away from these areas can sometimes be a risk, even on some streets. Always ask at your hotel where to avoid (we are talking about Africa and Latin America again).
Your safety while traveling is an incredibly difficult thing to generalize or give advice. At the risk of sounding negative, Australians can sometimes generalize many foreign places as unsafe, while forgetting that many of these places are far more law-abiding than home.
Drunk public behavior in many countries is taboo, and harsh penalties are imposed in many places even for minor offenses. Crime against tourists in countries that depend on tourism can be horrible. Don’t forget that a night out in any major Australian city can hardly be described as a totally safe experience.
If you can ignore the ‘A Current Affair’ world view that it is safer to stay indoors, away from the microwave and not call the plumber for fear of getting ripped off, that’s a start. From there, it’s just a matter of doing a little general research on your destination and using common sense when you arrive.
There are only a few places that are so unsafe to avoid them altogether, some that require extra caution, while for most destinations any risk can be managed with common sense.
