Quote:
Originally Posted by cral12
Bahamas latest travel advisory - we're heading there soon and will obviously maintain caution, but our plans should hopefully minimize risk.
How does everyone else view advisories at this level?
"Bahamas
Risks: High rates of crime, especially in Freeport and Nassau.
Reasons: Armed robberies, burglaries, purse snatchings, theft, fraud and sexual assaults are the most common crimes committed against travellers in Freeport and Nassau. Incidents of robbery also take place in cruise ship terminals and in and around popular resort areas, even in daylight hours. Crime increases during the holidays.
The advisory suggests travellers avoid the “over the hill” (south of Shirley Street) and Fish Fry (Arawak Cay) areas, especially at night. People should not walk alone, particularly at night, and stay alert at all times. If you are threatened by robbers, stay calm and don’t resist, the advisory suggests."
https://www.insauga.com/canada-issue...hamas-jamaica/ |
Personally I'm not a fan of Canada's travel advisory website, especially the labels it uses for the 4 categories. The travel advisory website is often one of the first that people run across when Googling around for safety concerns.
The descriptions can make some very safe countries sound extremely dangerous.
The same 'Exercise a high degree of caution' label is also currently assigned to: France, Germany, the UK, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden and 90 other countries (yes, just under 50% of the world's countries have been painted with the same brushstroke). It's always been this way.
I mean, when you can make *Denmark* (#2 on the Global Peace Index) sound scary, I don't think any country has a chance of being perceived fairly from the information given on the travel advisory website...
https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/denmark
Denmark:
"Pickpockets and purse snatchers may work in teams. One person will distract the victim while another commits the robbery."
"Be particularly alert in hotel lobbies and breakfast rooms because they attract professional, well-dressed thieves. These thieves blend in with the guests and target the bags and purses of distracted patrons."
"Ensure that your personal belongings, including passport and other travel documents, are secure at all times."
"Gang-related violence can occur in Copenhagen,"
"There is a threat of terrorism in Europe. Terrorists have carried out attacks in several European cities and further attacks are likely."
"Demonstrations occur from time to time in larger urban centres. Even peaceful demonstrations can turn violent at any time."
They use the same generic, hyperbolic, 'worst case scenario' phrases over and over on the profiles for nearly every country.
But a person looking at the listing for one specific country that they ran across after Googling would not realize this and it scares them.
"Even peaceful demonstrations can turn violent at any time." Yeah. They could.
They may as well write: "This country is known for their falafel. A person could choke while ingesting falafel.'
Here's the way I would interpret the 4 categories on the travel advisory website:
https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories
'Take normal security precautions' = about as safe as countries get in this world, but use common sense.
'Exercise a high degree of caution' = as mentioned, 95 of the world's countries (nearly half!) have been painted with the same brushstroke and assigned this label by the Canadian government. So this can be the toughest category when it comes to nuance. Even the label itself incites fear. 'Use common sense and be aware of your surroundings' would be a better label for this category.
There is a wide range of countries in this category, from those that most travellers would define as feeling very safe, to some countries that certainly have things to be aware of. By all means, do some better research but don't be scared off outright by the descriptions on the travel advisory website before doing that.
As a general rule I find that the *more specific* the warning is, the more I would pay attention. When it mentions a very specific area, it warrants the most attention.
'Avoid non-essential travel' and 'Avoid all travel' = yeah, now we're getting into countries that most would consider as definitely having legitimate safety concerns even for experienced travellers using common sense.
Ok, all that being said, when it comes to a better idea of safety in a country you are better off at least gathering some information from sources like Reddit or Tripadvisor first before reading the travel advisory website.
https://www.reddit.com/r/bahamas/sea...&restrict_sr=1
https://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic...d_Bahamas.html
They're far from a perfect, unbiased source of info, but at least it's usually knowledge from people who either live there, or have been there recently.
Reading the government's travel advisory page is kind of like getting travel advice from someone who's never travelled there (or anywhere) but likes to send you scary sounding clickbait articles about the country.
It does sound like there's certainly been an uptick in gang-on-gang related violence in Nassau in 2024. "“Retaliatory gang violence has been the primary motive in 2024 murders.”
One local says: "A lot of retaliation shootings, and far from the tourist areas. As a local, I'm not all that concerned, and stay away from the inner city areas where the crime mostly is. I feel safe in the tourist areas and other residential and business parts of the island, but take the usual precautions, as I would in any city.
The prevalence and easy availability of guns being brought in from the US is certainly playing a big part in our crime problems."
If the travel advisory page is a traveller's only source of safety info it can definitely skew reality quite a bit. Always remember, they can make *Denmark* sound scary.
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