Flights to Australia

The murder of British backpacker Peter Falconi, Caroline Stuttle  and others in the Childers hostel fire has giving the image of Australia as a dangerous destination for tourists. As a British newspaper said: “Goto Australia and see death.” However, a new Australian Institute of Criminology study found that tourists are less likely to be murdered, that Australians who live here.

Between 1996 and 2003, 34 tourists from 14 countries and were assassinated in Australia. These include 14 in the Backpacker Hostel in Childers fire and massacre in Port Arthur.

During the same period of some 40 million tourists visited Australia, with a homicide rate of around 0.9 million. In comparison with the national average of killings among us for 16 million inhabitants. Twelve of the victims were tourists from Britain.

The most dangerous time for tourists is the late or early hours of the morning, when 71 percent of murders have taken place. Fifty-nine percent of these tourists killed were men and more than three-quarters of the victims are aged 18 to 30 years.

The AIC report also expects the number of Australian tourists abroad killed.

During the same period of nine years between 1996-2003, a total of 158 Australians were killed in 32 countries – at a rate of 5.7 per million. But that excludes the 88 Australians killed in the Bali attack in 2002 and another 10 killed in the attacks of 11 September in New York in 2001.

When the atomic bomb falls and 9 / 11 victims were of the equation, the total number of Australians killed overseas was 60 – almost twice the number of foreign tourists killed in Australia.

The report is critical of some media coverage of assassinated tourists in Australia, both here and abroad. In cases of Aboriginal Natives the media was less than balanced and tends to promote fear and concern about the fact that Australia is not a safe place to visit.

There is no evidence that foreign visitors and not the specific targets of murder in Australia. We can say with reasonable conviction that the assassination of foreign visitors in Australia is at a lower level than the rest of the world and we are truly one of the safest places to visit