Spain, has been deemed unsafe by international watchdogs

Spain, has been deemed unsafe by international watchdogs. a car bomb, thought to be the work of terror group ETA, injured 17 people in a university car park in northern Pamplona, a town which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to its annual bull-run every year. According to the British Foreign Office, the threat to foreign travellers from terrorism in Spain is high. Since July, there have been at least 11 explosions in well-known tourist towns around the country including Torremolinos, Malaga and Benalmadena. Last week, the quiet medieval streets of Lucerne in Switzerland, one of the safest tourist destinations in the world, witnessed a savage assault on a British man who died of severe head injuries. Meanwhile, the once-peaceful island of Bali is back on high alert exactly six years after terror blasts on a nightclub killed 202 people. Although tourist numbers have recovered reaching an all-time high this year, there are acute fears that the Indonesian island could be targeted by terrorists again when the bombers responsible for the attacks are executed by firing squad in the coming weeks. As peak season in the Caribbean approaches, tourist numbers to the palm-fringed island of Antigua have plummeted since the brutal murder of British honeymoon couple, Catherine and Ben Mullany, in July. The ferocity of the crime, the tenth murder on the island this year, left many questioning the West Indies' reputation as a safe haven for holidays. Two vicious attacks on tourists in the last month have further damaged the region's tranquil image. In an ordeal that lasted more than an hour, a masked man sexually assaulted and robbed two British women a fortnight ago on the tropical island of Tobago. Earlier in the month, a Swedish couple were killed on the island in an apparent robbery. Travellers are being urged to be cautious when renting villas on the island and stay in hotels with tight security measures such as a 24-hour guard. A recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit revealed that the English-speaking Caribbean, stretching from the Bahamas in the north to Trinidad and Tobago in the south, has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with an average of 30 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, the murder rate in Ireland is 1.5 per 100,000. Another part of the world whose image as a dream destination has been shattered in recent weeks is India's most famous tourist hotspot, Goa. The recent rape of a 14-year-old German girl in the beach resort has rocked a country already marred by the rape and murder of British teenager, Scarlet Keeling, at Anjuna beach earlier this year. Police in Goa are also investigating the death of a 65-year-old Australian tourist who was violently killed after complaining of poor service in a restaurant at Calangute.

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