2 in 10 British tourists say they are sexually harassed on Mallorca

AN average of 16 per cent of young British and German tourists claim to have suffered sexual harassment during their holiday in Mallorca. For the British visitors the proportion is higher at 20 per cent, whilst about nine per cent of the German holidaymakers claim to have been sexually harassed.

In addition, 2.2 per cent of the tourists surveyed said they had been the victim of rape, and 6.2 per cent had been involved in a fight.

The study undertaken by The European Institute of Studies on Prevention (IREFREA) covered five holiday destinations (Mallorca Crete, Cyprus, the Algarve and Venice) during the summer of 2009 and found Mallorca to be the place with the highest incidences of violent behaviour.

The IREFEA President, Amador Calafat, said that this established a close relationship between the consumption of alcohol or drugs and the possibility of being involved in a violent act or incident.

He also said it called attention to the fact that the highest incidence of crimes was in Mallorca where the “consumption of alcohol is also the highest”.

Meanwhile, contrasting research has shown Spain is widely perceived as a safe country by British tourists. British people give Spain an average safety rating of 9.8 out of ten.

France was also seen as a secure place, scoring 9.5 in the survey.

Mexico was voted as the ‘least safe’ holiday destination.

This was revealed in a study conducted by online travel agent, sunshine.co.uk, as part of ongoing research into Britons’ views on destinations around the world.

The results were collated to find the top 5 ‘safest’ and ‘unsafe’ destinations, based on the average score of how secure British tourists felt whilst there.