Iceland in first place

Austria is the fourth safest travel destination in the world

The Swiss insurance comparison calculator HelloSafe has published a travel safety index for the first time. It uses 35 criteria to measure how safe global travel destinations are. Austria came fourth after Iceland, Singapore and Denmark.

The criteria are divided into five categories: Natural disasters, violence in society, involvement in internal or external armed conflict, health infrastructure and militarization of the country. The world's most unsafe countries include many old and new conflict hotspots, which are often coupled with high natural risks.

Russia and the USA very unsafe
As a result of this codification, Russia and the USA are also among the 15 most unsafe countries in the world. The Philippines is considered the world's most unsafe destination, followed by Colombia and Mexico. Seven European countries are among the ten safest countries - the exceptions are Singapore, Bhutan and Qatar.

However, this shows that the index should be viewed with a critical eye: Qatar in particular may be a safe destination for some, but dangerous for others due to its identity. In 2023, the country was among the ten most unsafe countries in the "Gay Travel Index" published annually by the queer travel magazine Spartakus, which assesses travel safety for non-heterosexual travelers. Incidentally, Austria was ranked 13th out of 199.