Helpful Documents: Crime Tourism
Many countries’ economies are heavily dependent on tourism (UNTWO, 2013). Anything that deters
tourists is therefore a threat both to the tourist industry and to the wider economy. Crime, low-level
public disorder, political unrest and terrorism are therefore of particular importance to the tourist
industry. This chapter considers the relationship between tourism and crime and disorder. It starts with
a review of the extent to which tourist resorts generate higher-than-average levels of crime and disorder
and then addresses the high levels of risk experienced by tourists, before going on to suggest
explanations for these patterns. It then considers the effect of crime and disorder on tourism numbers.
Since threats to safety and security impact decisions on where to take a vacation, it is arguable that the
tourism industry can also be considered a victim of crime. The final sections therefore address policies
directed at supporting tourist victims and reducing crime and disorder in resorts.
Crime and disorder in tourist resorts Measuring the extent of crime in tourist resorts is fraught with
difficulties (Mawby, 2007a). Because victim surveys generally target local residents and exclude tourists,
we are largely dependent upon notoriously unreliable police statistics. These are further undermined by
the fact that recorded crime data are usually presented as rates based on the normal resident
population, taking no account of the fact that the population at risk is swelled during the tourist season.
The fact that the amount of crime increases during the tourist season is thus no guarantee that the
crime rate has risen. Nonetheless, it does appear that many tourist areas do experience higher than
average crime rates. For example, Walmsley et al. (1983), contrasting three tourist with three non-
tourist centres in New South Wales, concluded that crime peaked in the tourist season in the former.
Similar findings were reported 383 M. Gill (ed.), The Handbook of Security © Palgrave Macmillan, a
division of Nature America Inc. 2014 384 Part III: Crime and Security in Sectors by Fujii and Mak (1979) in
Hawaii, Jud (1975) in Mexico and Kelly (1993) in Queensland, Australia. More recently, in the United
Kingdom, Mawby (2007b, 2012) concluded that tourism was a significant generator of crime and
disorder in some of the major tourist centres in the county of Cornwall, especially in Newquay, a town
attracting youth tourism. But not all research is conclusive. Pizam (1982), considering the relationship
between crime rates and tourism and other social variables in nine US states, concluded that the impact
of tourism was at best slight. Pelfrey (1998) also found little evidence that tourist numbers pushed the
rates of violent crime up in Honolulu and Las Vegas. On the other hand, a consistent finding is that local
residents blame tourism for many of the crime and disorder problems in their area. This is particularly
the case in less developed societies, where local people perceive the impact of tourism on crime,
disorder and morality to be both wide and intensive (Haralambopoulos and Pizam, 1996; King et al.,
1993), but also applies in developed societies (Davis et al., 1988; Mawby, 2007b; Milman and Pizam,
1988; Ross, 1992). Such studies raise the possibility that rates may vary for different types of tourism
resorts, catering for different types of tourists. For example, resorts marketing mass tourism, especially
youth tourism, may experience higher crime rates than those marketed at families or older people.
Prideaux (1996) addressed these questions in relation to the three largest tourist destinations in
Queensland, Australia: the Gold Coast, Cairns and the Sunshine Coast. The three areas differed in a
number of respects: for example, the Gold Coast had the most extensive tourist development, attracting
predominantly interstate tourists; Cairns, a more urban location, attracted relatively more international
tourists; and the Sunshine Coast, which is least developed, accommodated the highest proportion of
intrastate visitors. The areas also evidenced contrasting crime rates. In the Gold Coast and Cairns, where
increased rates of crime had paralleled tourist development over a decade or more, crime was more
common than on the Sunshine Coast and other, smaller, holiday destinations. Prideaux argued that the
club scene in both the Gold Coast and Cairns provided the opportunity for drug dealing and public order
offences involving both casual workers and tourists, which in turn fuelled property crime. However, not
all resorts develop in the same way: The model traces the development of crime through the manner in
which the destination is marketed, the types of tourist accommodation facilities constructed and the
expansion of the marketing hinterland from day trippers to international tourists. Two principal types of
destinations are postulated, the Hedonistic destination and the Family Values destination
Crime in the Philippines: How to Travel Safely (worldnomads.com)
