Citation

Mawby RI, Brunt P, Hambly Z. Br. J. Criminol. 2000; 40(3): 468-479.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/bjc/40.3.468

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

There has been considerable attention paid within tourism management and the tourism academic community to tourists' experiences and fear of crime, but there has been little interest in the topic among criminologists. This is particularly surprising, given that tourist areas appear to suffer disproportionate amounts of crime, and within such areas tourists seem to be victimized more frequently than do local residents. Our own research attempted to fill this void through a victim survey of a national sample of British people, focusing particularly on their last holiday. We asked them about their experiences of crime while on holiday and their perceptions of safety. Our findings confirmed the high victimization rates experienced by tourists. However, although many people took notions of safety into account when they chose a holiday area/country, few saw crime or disorder as a problem when they subsequently went on holiday. While the criminological literature suggests that fear normally exceeds risk, in the case of tourism and crime it appears that risk exceeds fear. These findings are discussed in the context of debates over the rationality of fear of or anxiety about crime.