High-profile incidents in faraway places, such as the murder of two British backpackers in Thailand last week, or the case of Michaela McAreavey in Mauritius, tend to heighten our sense of fear and create an unrealistic assessment of the dangers we might face when travelling to those places.
On this week’s Travel Show podcast, Fionn Davenport is joined by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet and The Irish Times’ Deirdre Veldon and Peter Murtagh to discuss the real and the imagined risks of travel in the developing world.
“I think people know rationally that these events can happen anywhere, and they are freaks in that sense” says Deirdre. “However, if a country is very far away, it does have an exotic air, and people may not know the security situation”. Deirdre, whose travels with her husband and four children in Central America make her something of an expert, advises to “speak to people who have been in the area very recently” to get the most accurate idea of the state of affairs on the ground.
“There are not malcontents waiting on every street corner” Tom Hall reassures Fionn. “Of course there are places you shouldn’t go, but I’m sure not many people listening to his are thinking of how to get to Aleppo or Northern Iraq at the moment”, he says.
But what about Thailand? “You may find some petty theft level of petty crime is low compared to places we have at home” says Tom. “There are people who go out of their way to target tourists, there are occasional scams which people do need to watch out for”.
Peter agrees that there are risks, but feels they are worth taking. “Just going abroad is taking a risk, going somewhere your not living, not familiar, there is an element of risk in merely doing that, but that is the attraction of travel.” He says.
His advice for staying safe is to keep your head down. “I suppose the rule of thumb is, don’t attract attention to yourself. If you’re going into a place with enormous deprivation, don’t flaunt that you are different from that, because you are putting temptation in people’s way”.
To hear the discussion, log to The Travel Show's soundcloud page or subscribe for free via iTunes.
