Does crime change your travel plans?

[Cave Diver]

There have been quite a few reports lately of increasing crime at some popular travel destinations. In some of the specific threads people seem to blow it off as par for the course for that destination and for other places, people have decided to alter their plans.

 

[adurso]

Depend on who is traveling with me, if my children are along, even though they are adults, safety is the watchword. If just my wife and I we are going no matter what.

In my younger days the group I dived with considered crime ridden destinations an opportunity for bonus activities.....

 

[Ste Wart]

After reading the travel advisories I decided not to got to El Salvador, while in Central Am last year.

I went to Nicaragua instead, me and a friend got held up at gunpoint our first morning in Managua.

So much for that.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I selected "I'll travel to areas with increasing violent crime" but it really needs a qualifier. I would possibly reconsider travelling to an area if I did not figure I could keep myself safe (by staying on the resort perhaps or staying in the open during the day....that sort of thing). Size also play a role.....If we are talking Murder in Mexico or Murder on Cayman Brac it is very different.

 

[Jax]

I take news reports with a grain of salt, and research the opinions of others in the travel local.

It's more important to know what the local 'take' is on the situation.

The recent shooting of a man in Roatan, coupled with the many reports that the individuals concerned are known for dangerous, erratic, and senseless behavior without appropriate consequences, is enough for me to eschew that locale. There are too many other places to go without accepting that risk.

I will go to Mexico, though not to border towns.

 

[TSandM]

I answered "other", because things are relative. For example, I travel regularly to Mexico, and many non-diving friends worry about that . . . but the crime described in the media is not a real issue where we go. Petty theft is the biggest issue to be expected in the tourist area of Q. Roo (that, and being shaken down by the police) and petty theft doesn't really seem to be a lot worse than other places people travel all the time (like Hawaii). Leave a car in an isolated place anywhere, and you are asking for a break-in.

I also went to Egypt, despite people's concerns about the political unrest and protests/riots. Again, they just weren't where WE were at all, and never were.

But things like the repeated reports of car prowlers in Bonaire do leave me with a bad taste in my mouth, and it's partly for that reason that Bonaire isn't high on my bucket list of places to go. So crime does affect my travel planning decisions.

 

[koozemani]

I was hesitant for a long time to return to Mexico. I was finally jonesing bad enough to try it again and was mildly surprised at how smoothly the trip went. I will return, but I am constantly vigilant and stay within the group. As for travel planning, it definitely plays an important part in my planning. There are several carribean destinations that are falling lower on my list directly because of recent events.

It also matters, as was mentioned earlier, who I am traveling with. With the missus and/or kids I am less likely to go places than if I was traveling alone or with a random group. It's just that many more people I need to be concerned about.

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

Other, unless there are war like conditions I'll go anywhere. Crime is everywhere, who on this forum lives in a crime free area!! I travel alot, and I take the same precautions out of town, and the country as I would take when I'm home!!

 

[vladimir]

I blew off a weekend trip to Bangkok during the recent rioting. Large-scale breakdowns of civil rule scare me a lot more than random crime. For example, I would not have gone to Egypt, as TSandM did. I know, I know, the local divemasters will tell us that it is/was totally safe--and I believe it. But in situations like that, if and when it becomes unsafe there isn't much you can do about it. An acquaintance of mine was hacked to death in Jakarta during the violence surrounding the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-1998 while there on a business trip.

I have ignored travel advisories on quite a few occasions, but I'm not stupid about it. I take precautions against crime and avail myself of local knowledge. So, "I'll travel to areas with increasing violent crime" and "I canceled plans to travel due to increasing crime." It depends. I checked "other."

 

[Rhone Man]

I went for "other". Usually I don't pay crime much heed - if you have travelled much in South Africa, Trinidad and Jamaica, frankly, it is all relative after that.

I used to make a point of trying to travel to cities that had been the subject of recent terrorist attacks (Cairo, Mumbai, Moscow) on the basis that (i) it was pretty damn cheap, and (ii) it had to be about the safest place in the world the days after the attack. Let the sheep go in the other direction.

Ironically, the only place I have ever actually been beaten up in was Edinburgh, which is one of the safer European cities.