When we’re organising an event abroad, we need our attendees to be as safe as they can be while they are travelling, when they are there and when they go out to see the city. The Economist Intelligence Unit has published the 2019 Safe Cities Index, which ranks 60 cities across 57 indicators covering digital security, health security, infrastructure security and personal security.
Cities in the Asia-Pacific region make up six of the top ten destination, although the region does not have any bearing on the results. The top twenty cities are as follows:
Paris is ranked at 23, with Brussels 24, Madrid 25, Barcelona 26 and Rome at 30. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are 27 and 28.
The top cities in this sector are Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul, Amsterdam and Stockholm, which have good access to high-quality healthcare, safe food, water and air, and speed of emergency services.
The top cities in this sector are Singapore, Osaka, Barcelona, Tokyo and Madrid. These cities have good continuity management plans, pedestrian friendliness, institutional capacity and disaster-risk informed development.
The top cities in this sector are Singapore, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Wellington, which have strong personal security policies, community-based patrolling and low levels of violent and petty crime, illegal drug use, corruption and organised crime.
The top cities in this sector are Tokyo, Singapore, Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco. They have low levels of infection by computer viruses and malware and a high level of knowledge about privacy policies, awareness of cybersecurity and dedicated cyber-security teams.
Crime, a natural disaster or terrorism can happen anywhere, but if a destination is prepared to deal with it efficiently and has a good emergency service, then that makes it a safer city for a conference or meeting. The recent riots in Hong Kong have had a significant impact on the attractiveness of the destination for business travellers, who are switching to Singapore and other Asian destinations to avoid disruption.
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