Introduction
Forbes Advisor conducted a research to uncover the most and least risky cities for tourists. They compared 60 international cities across seven key metrics.
Within the Southeast Asia region, Malaysia is ranked 5th among the riskiest cities for tourists to visit, while Yangon tops the list.
Globally, Malaysia is ranked 29th. Caracas, Venezuela, tops the list as the riskiest city for tourists, while Singapore is the safest both globally and in Southeast Asia.
Background
The 7 metrics used by Forbes:
Travel safety rating: 20% of score. Data comes from The United States Department of State, 2024. This metric reflects country-level data.
Crime risk: 17% of score. This metric provides an estimation of the overall level of crime in each city. Data comes from Numbeo, 2024.
Personal security risk: 17% of score. This metric considers how at-risk citizens are from crime, violence, terrorist threats, natural disasters and economic vulnerabilities. Data comes from The Economist, 2021.
Health security risk: 17% of score. This metric reflects the level and quality of healthcare services and infrastructure in a city. Data comes from The Economist, 2021.
Infrastructure security risk: 10% of score. This metric reflects the availability and quality of city infrastructure and its vulnerability to man-made and natural disasters. Data comes from The Economist, 2021.
Natural disaster risk: 10% of score. This metric reflects exposure and vulnerability to natural disasters. Data comes from The World Risk Report, published by Ruhr University Bochum, 2023.
Digital security risk: 9% of score. This metric reflects the ability of citizens to freely use the internet without fear of privacy violations, identity theft and online attacks. Data comes from The Economist, 2021.
Findings
South East Asia
Here’s how it looks within the Southeast Asia region:
It is based on insurability, where 100% represents the riskiest and 0% represents the safest.
Comparison against Singapore
Here is how Kuala Lumpur compares against Singapore across five metrics (only five were mentioned in the article):
In each metric, 1st represents the worst performance
Globally: Riskiest
- Showing the top 10 cities
Globally: Safest
- Showing the top 10 cities
