A newly released interactive map shows the most dangerous travel destinations in the world for 2021.
With many now optimistically looking forward to a return of holidays next year, a new map shows the most at risk places globally that we can travel to.
The annually published Travel Risk Map has been released and it ranks the most dangerous places around the world to visit.
Compiled by International SOS, they rank the safety of countries taking into account a number of factors.
It ranks the safety of countries looking through three main categories : medical risk, security risk, and then the Covid-19 threat.
The Covid-19 threat looks at how businesses are restricted as opposed to measuring deaths, excess deaths, or cases.
The security threat is ranked primarily on a combination of political violence, social unrest, and violent and petty crime.
The medical risk was recorded pre-pandemic meaning it’s likely a very different picture now because of how Covid-19 has pushed some nation’s medical systems to, and beyond, breaking point.
The map says that Libya, Syria, Iraq and the Central African republic are amongst the most dangerous places to visit next year.
The map classifies those with the highest security risk level as extreme, and these are found primarily in Africa and the Middle East.
Amongst the highest security risk countries are: Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Mali, South Sudan, and Somalia.
Similarly, a lot of the same countries appear amongst the worst for medical risk, which is understandable considering political violence, unrest and social violence and crime undoubtedly compound the problem of offering medical care.
The worst areas for medical risk is a similar list, including: Libya, South Sudan, Somalia, Venezuela, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen.
Security and medical risk was lowest often in the west, but the ongoing impact of the pandemic changes that in real time.
Much of Scandinavia has the lowest security risk at ‘insignificant’ and China, despite placing millions of Uyhgur Muslims in concentration camps, is ranked low for security risk.
Georgia is the only place to be ranked ‘Very High’ in terms of the impact on domestic operations of Covid-19.
The UK is uniformly ranked as ‘Medium’ of Covid-19’s impact despite the impact of Covid-19 on business varying hugely.
Only New Zealand, Tanzania and Nicaragua were ranked as having a ‘Very Low Impact” of Covid-19 on domestic operations.
This year, the assessment also took into account the “underlying health and security threat environment, recent Covid-19 activity, local travel restrictions and the efficacy of mitigation measures.”
Highest ('extreme') security risk countries:
- Syria
- Iraq
- Yemen
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Libya
- Central African Republic
- Mali
- Afghanistan
- Donetsk and Luhansk regions of the Ukraine
Highest ('very high') medical risk countries:
- Niger
- Libya
- Yemen
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- North Korea
- Guinea
- Venezuela
- Burkina Faso
- Sierra Leone
- Guinea Bissau
- Liberia
- Central African Republic
- Eritrea
- Haiti
