Staying safe without staying home

Travel safety advice tends toward either complacency or alarm. The measured picture supports neither.

What actually harms travellers

The statistics on deaths and serious injury among travellers consistently show the same pattern.

Road traffic incidents are the leading cause of preventable death among travellers, by a substantial margin.

Which is the opposite of where anxiety generally focuses.

Drowning, which is a leading cause among younger travellers particularly, frequently involving alcohol and unfamiliar water.

Pre-existing medical conditions, particularly cardiovascular events among older travellers, which account for a large share of deaths abroad.

Falls and ordinary accidents.

Violent crime against travellers, while it occurs, accounts for a small proportion.

Which suggests the precautions with the highest return are unglamorous.

The road

Given the above, worth its own treatment.

Road fatality rates vary by an order of magnitude between countries, and the difference is not evenly distributed among the places travellers go.

Practical measures: use seatbelts including in taxis and rear seats, avoid motorcycle travel in countries with poor road safety records unless experienced and helmeted, avoid road travel at night in unfamiliar countries, and be sceptical of long-distance bus operators with poor reputations.

Motorcycle and scooter hire is a specific risk. It accounts for a substantial share of serious injury among travellers in Southeast Asia in particular, frequently involving inexperienced riders, no helmet and no valid licence — which also voids insurance.

Theft

The most common problem and rarely dangerous.

Opportunistic theft — pickpocketing, bag snatching, theft from accommodation and vehicles — is what most travellers encounter.

The measures are straightforward: carry little, keep what you carry secure and out of sight, be alert in crowds and on public transport, and do not leave anything visible in a vehicle.

Distraction techniques are consistent across countries: a spilled substance, a dropped item, a fake petition, an unexpected commotion. Recognising the pattern is most of the defence.

Carry a decoy amount of cash separately from the main reserve.

Photograph or scan documents and store them accessibly.

Scams

Also consistent internationally.

Taxi fare disputes, which are prevented by agreeing a fare in advance or using a metered or app-based service.

The unsolicited helpful stranger who leads you somewhere.

Currency exchange sleight of hand.

The attraction that is closed today, offered with an alternative.

Overcharging at establishments with no displayed prices.

Skimming devices on cash machines, which is why bank-operated machines inside branches are preferable.

None of these is dangerous; all are avoidable by knowing they exist.

The precautions worth taking

Register with or note the location of your country's consulate.

Leave an itinerary and copies of documents with someone at home.

Have a means of communication that works — a local SIM, roaming, or an offline plan.

Know the local emergency number, which is not the same everywhere.

Have insurance, with the details accessible.

And keep enough money accessible to leave a situation — a taxi, a hotel, a flight — without depending on anything.

Assessing destinations

Government travel advisories are the standard source and should be read carefully rather than as a binary.

They frequently apply to specific regions rather than to whole countries, and a country under general advice may have areas that are entirely routine.

They are also influenced by diplomatic considerations, which is worth knowing.

Reading several countries' advisories for the same destination gives a more balanced picture than any single one.

The identity dimension

Worth stating rather than avoiding.

Safety and legal risk differ substantially by traveller — women travelling alone, LGBTQ travellers, travellers of particular ethnicities or faiths, and travellers with disabilities face different conditions in different places.

Several countries criminalise conduct that is legal elsewhere, and the practical implications warrant specific research rather than general advice.

Organisations and communities publishing destination-specific information for particular groups are the more useful sources here.

General information about travel safety, not security or medical advice. Consult official travel advisories and a qualified clinician about your own circumstances.