The world’s second safest destination is in the Middle East

According to a new report, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the second safest destination to visit as a tourist.

The Which? Travel report relies on data from the World Economic Fund, the World Risk Report, NHS Fit for Travel, and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s terrorism risk assessments.

“Of the 20 holiday destinations that we looked at, Iceland, unsurprisingly, came out as the safest country,” the report said.

“36 people have been murdered in Iceland since the year 2000, an average of around two a year. This is tragic but means, statistically, that it’s one of the world’s most peaceful nations.”

The UAE and Singapore were also considered extremely safe, with Spain the next safest of the six popular European holiday destinations the report looked at.

This is in line with a study conducted by international hostel and hotel booking platform Hostelworld which places the UAE among the most popular destinations for solo female travelers

Source: Shutterstock.

To add on, the UAE was found to be “low risk” for health concerns. It also ranked quite high in the list of least risky countries in terms of natural disasters, behind Barbados and Iceland and ahead of Singapore.

On the flip side, the worst rated destinations in Asia are Thailand and India, while the riskiest country is unsurprisingly, Japan.

“The riskiest country was earthquake-afflicted Japan, which, while considered extremely safe by most measures, had a natural disaster risk of 13.47 percent,” the report wrote.

Japan is situated in a volcanic zone on the volatile Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

Frequent low-intensity earth tremors and occasional volcanic activity are felt throughout the islands while destructive earthquakes occur several times a century, with the worst being the 2011 Tohoku magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami.

Meanwhile. on the subject of terrorism, the reported stated it’s “very likely” in Australia, India, and Thailand, adding that terrorism “can’t be ruled out” anywhere.

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Source: travelwireasia.com