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The murders of British backpackers Peter Falconio and Caroline Stuttle and the Childers hostel fire have given Australia an image as a dangerous destination for tourists. As one British newspaper put it, “ see Australia and die ”. But a new Australian Institute of Criminology study has found that tourists are less likely to be murdered than the Australians living here. Between 1996 and 2003, 34 tourists from 14 different countries were murdered in Australia. This includes the 14 tourists killed in the Childers backpacker hostel fire and the Port Arthur massacre. During that same period about 40 million tourists visited Australia, giving a rate of homicide of 0.9 per million. This compares to the national homicide rate amongst us locals of 16 per million people. Twelve of the murdered tourists came from Britain. The most dangerous times for tourists was late evening or the early hours of the morning, when 71 per cent of the murders occurred. Fifty-nine percent of murdered tourists were males and over three-quarters of the victims were aged between 18 and 30 years. The AIC report also looked at the numbers of Australian tourists killed overseas. During that same nine year period between 1996-2003, a total of 158 Australians were murdered in 32 overseas countries – a murder rate of 5.7 per million. But this included the 88 Australians killed in the Bali bombing in 2002 and a further 10 killed in the September 11 attacks in New York in 2001. If the Bali bombing and 9/11 victims are taken out of the equation, the total number of Australians murdered overseas was 60 - almost twice the number of overseas tourists murdered in Australia. The report is critical of some of the media coverage of tourist murders in Australia, both here and overseas. In some cases, the media reporting has been less than balanced and tended to stimulate fear and concern that Australia is not a safe place to visit. There is no evidence indicating that overseas visitors are the specific targets of murder in Australia. It can be said with reasonable conviction that the murder of overseas visitors in Australia is a statistically rare event.
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