Australia continues to shine as a premier destination for travellers, with two of its cities making Forbes Adviser’s list of the safest cities for tourists worldwide.
Sydney and Melbourne join global travel icons like Amsterdam and Tokyo, further cementing the country’s appeal to globetrotters, according to an article from The New Daily.
Sydney shines at no.4
Sydney ranked 4th on Forbes Adviser’s list, trailing only behind Singapore, Tokyo, and Toronto.
This recognition highlights Sydney’s strong performance across various safety metrics, including health security, crime rates, travel safety, infrastructure security, digital security, and natural disaster preparedness.
The article noted that Sydney scored exceptionally well in digital security, topping the world in this category.
This reflects the city’s ability to ensure that residents and visitors can freely use the internet without fear of privacy violations, identity theft, or online attacks.
Additionally, Sydney performed admirably in personal security, health security, and infrastructure security, securing the top 10 spots in each of these areas.
Melbourne makes the top 10
Melbourne also earned a spot, ranking 9th on the list. While it came after Zurich, Copenhagen, Seoul, and Osaka, it managed to outperform many other global cities.
Amsterdam rounded out the top 10, following Melbourne.
The article also highlighted that Melbourne, though not as strong in health security (ranking 57th out of 60 cities), performed well in digital security.
Both Sydney and Melbourne, however, did not rank in the top 15 cities based on crime, which indicates a relatively low overall level of crime.
What makes a city safe?
According to The New Daily article, Forbes ranked cities based on several key metrics: health security, crime rates, travel safety, infrastructure security, digital security, and natural disaster risk.
The goal was to uncover the most and least risky cities for tourists by comparing 60 international cities across these categories.
Singapore claimed the top spot as the safest city in the world.
It boasts a low natural disaster risk and ranks second lowest in health security, infrastructure security, and digital security risk.
According to Smart Traveller, the Australian government’s travel advice site, “violent crime against tourists is rare” in Singapore.
Medical facilities and care standards in Singapore are comparable to or higher than those in Australia.
However, travellers should be aware of Singapore’s strict laws against inappropriate behaviour.
The world’s riskiest cities
At the other end of the spectrum, Caracas, Venezuela, was deemed the most unsafe city.
It has a notorious reputation for high crime and violence and features the sixth-highest homicide rate globally outside of war zones.
Forbes found Caracas had the highest health and crime risk, and the second-highest infrastructure and digital security risk.
Other cities listed as unsafe include Karachi in Pakistan and Yangon in Myanmar.
The top 10 riskiest cities also feature Lagos (Nigeria), Manila (Philippines), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Bogota (Colombia), Cairo (Egypt), Mexico City (Mexico), and Quito (Ecuador).
