Australia Blog

Australia's high crime rates prompt travel warning

Australia's high crime rates have prompted Japan to issue a travel advisory warning tourists to beware of Aussie thieves.

Due to Australia's extremely high rate of theft and muggings, Japan's Foreign Ministry has warned tourists to Australia's Gold Coast region not to leave valuables in locked hotel rooms and "to keep a tight grip on hand and shoulder bags".

But CDNN Travel Editor Carmen Sanchez said that Japanese travelers are more likely than any other nationality to change their travel plans based on official government travel advisories and warned all dive travelers to Australia to take extra precautions to prevent thefts.

I'm...speechless. I can only assume that there is a travel warning out for just about every country - United States, England, Spain, Morocco, Russia, etc. I know it may be 'standard' and all, but it seems sort od f shake-your-head laughable when they equate a pickpocketing to a terrorism alert. They send off 'warnings' so frequently that they pretty much have convinced people that there is always a warning so no one takes them as seriously as perhaps they should. Boy who cried wolf, is the saying that comes to mind.