If you don’t travel often (or even if you do!), it’s very easy to turn on the news or google terrorism threats. It seems like it’s a persistent presence in the world, and it might seem like a very real danger.
When events like the shootings in Paris/London happen, it’s easy to say ‘oh, well if this can happen there, it can happen anywhere and maybe I should postpone my visit to those cities’.
But if you cross off every country or city that has had an attack in the last half-century, you would miss out on an incredible number of beautiful, perfectly safe, places in the world.
Think about this: in these cities of many millions of people, added to the number of tourists on any given day, you are one or two people. An attack happens, most of the time, in a very small area. A subway station, a particular building or event. Of all the places you could be in that city, the chances of you being in that exact location and, furthermore, at the exact moment the attack happens…chances are very small.
Sadly, more and more cities are practicing how to deal with these events. But this also means that they are dealt with quickly and resolved quickly, and then life resumes, normally, for most cases.
For example, the recent attsck at the Louvre closed the museum for less than 18 hours. The chances of an attack even affecting your travel plans is small.
You are, statistically safer doing any of these ‘safe activities’, in which the likelihood of death or injury is much higher than being injured in an attack.
- Walking. Anywhere. To the store, a neighbors, to school or work. You have a roughly 1 in 700 chance of dying by walking.
- Prefer to travel by bicycle? 1 in 4300.
- Airplane? 1 in almost 10,000.
- Accidentally stab yourself to death? Happens to 1 in 30,000 people.
- Like to swim/surf in the ocean? 1 in 11 million people might get attacked. (And you can survived a bite…)
- Your odds of being killed in an attack while traveling, are less than 1 in 20 million
Finally, a positive that comes from these events. There is probably never a better time to travel to these places than shortly after an attack, as locals and security will be vigilant. Everyone is overly-cautious and maybe a little on edge. But by traveling during this time, you may even benefit from less busy attractions, quieter restaurants and hotels, and, while I can’t speak for everyone, I myself feel that in some small way, it is my own silent protest. These attacks will not stop me from exploring the world. They will not prevent me from seeing people and places, and they will not change how these places are viewed to me as a tourist/potential tourist.
Don’t use terrorism attacks as a reason not to travel. Or if you do, please let me know, so that I can book my next trip there to enjoy the relative quiet 😊.
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