So what are the safest destinations to travel? Every year, different players take part in this exercise, using different methodologies and on different scales. The latest ranking was published in the UK by Which?based on data from STC. Several criteria were combined, including the risk of natural disasters, road accidents, the safety of womenhomicide rates, terrorism and health infrastructure. While the rankings are aimed primarily at holidaymakers, they do provide some information that may be relevant to business travellers overall, even if some of the destinations studied are more suited to wearing flip-flops - or après-ski - than to wearing a tie.
And among the safest destinations in the ranking, it is the Switzerland - which can boast hybrid destination status bleisure - in first place. This leadership also sets the tone for a list dominated by European destinations, as the top 10 shows.
And the France in all this? Like other leading European destinations, such asGermany (11th), theSpain (15th) or theItaly (19th), France (20th) has to make do with the top 20. France is penalised in particular by the terrorist threat, which is judged to be higher than average, and by the poor score awarded for women's safety. It is worth noting that Which?'s ranking relegates top business destinations such as the United States (42nd) and Japan (29th) well outside the top 10.
What about the countries where business travellers need to be extra vigilant on the ground, but also when preparing their business trip? Several major business destinations are among the poor performers in this ranking. Although Jamaica comes bottom (64th), it is right on the heels of Brazil (63rd), theSouth Africa (62nd), the Philippines (61st) and the Mexico (60e). South Africa had already been singled out in another ranking published a few months earlier by Numbeo. The authors of the report point out that " South Africa has long had a dismal reputation for violent crime, but our table shows that its road death rates per 100,000 inhabitants are almost as bad "...
