Conference turris::scandia

468.0. "Sweden: you don't even need AMEX " by TLE::SAVAGE () Wed May 08 1991 11:57

    From: [email protected]
    Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.lifestyle,
	clari.news.europe
    Subject: British travelers find Egypt worst for belly, Sweden the best
    Date: 7 May 91 12:00:17 GMT
 
 
	LONDON (UPI) -- British travelers have found Egypt the most hazardous
destination for gastronomical nightmares and Mexico and Brazil a likely
place to lose their wallets, while Sweden ranked No. 1 for an uneventful
holiday, according to a survey published Tuesday.
	In a survey among 34,235 travelers, Britain's Consumer's Association
magazine "Holiday Which" found 60 percent of visitors to Egypt fall
ill, mainly from stomach upsets. Gambia came second, handing travelers a
47 percent chance of illness and Turkey tied with Mexico and Brazil for
third at 45 percent.
	"Although illness proved to be the biggest holiday hazard, affecting
nearly 16 percent of the readers surveyed, the good news is that most of
the diseases were not serious," the survey said. "Stomach upsets were
by far the most common complaint, accounting for 63 percent of all
disorders."
	Sweden, which held the distinction for offering the safest holiday,
Ireland and the Netherlands all offered just a 3 percent chance of
falling ill.
	The survey recommended eating freshly cooked dishes wherever
possible, avoiding shellfish and ice cream, and drinking boiled or
bottled water. It reminded travelers that unpurified ice can frustrate
the purpose of bottled water.
	In the United States, travelers risked a 10 percent chance of falling
ill and a 3.2 percent chance of theft.
	While fewer than 3 percent of all travelers reported accidents,
visiting Malaysia offered the greatest risk. Some 11 percent of tourists
met an accident there, mainly falls and trips but a number of readers 
"confessed that their fallers were due to carelessness, alcohol or
sheer bad luck."
	Trips and falls posed the greatest risk to travelers, accounting for
40 percent of all injuries, water sports at 16 percent, animal bites at
8 percent and road accidents 4 percent. Greece was "particularly bad
for animal bites," the survey said.
	Aside from alertness against theft, the magazine recommended checking
to ensure "your insurance cover is adequate before you go," especially
if visiting Brazil and Mexico, where 11.5 percent of all holidaymakers
were targets of thieves. Bulgaria followed at 9.3 percent.
	No thefts were reported by travelers in Gambia or Sweden.
	Of the 34,235 travelers, 175, or nearly 1 percent, "felt threatened
or were mugged or attacked" while on holiday. Though Gambia was an
unlikely place to be robbed, it ranked No. 1 for violence according to
an unlucky 8 percent of all travelers who visited there. A similar
result was recorded for Morocco.
	"The good news is that most holidaymakers in our survey felt no
threat of danger. Visitors to many European countries and places further
afield like Canada and the USSR reported no problems," the magazine
said.