Travel insurance company InsureMyTrip has taken a deep dive into the safety of the world’s most popular cruise destinations and found that, in general, destinations in Asia are a lot safer than destinations in Europe.
Along with a crime index, cruise destinations were also rated for the number of nearby hospitals, restaurants, and onshore tours.
Dubai, which is developing rapidly as a sought-after cruise destination, comes out on top in the InsureMyTrip survey, thanks to its reputation for safety, and also for the high number of onshore activities available to cruise travellers (safaris, hot air ballooning, etc).
Dubai also scored highly for warm sea temperatures, ideal for recreational water activities.
Phuket ranked second in the survey, winning additional points for its quality restaurants, plus its bath-tub like warm waters.
Oddly, Singapore – rated so often as one of the safest destination in the world, and a major cruise destination – was missing from the InsureMy Trip rankings.
On the flip side of the coin, the Caribbean destination of Belize City is the least safe destination in the study as a result of several incidents of crime occurring during cruise ship visits in 2024.
Hamburg is second in the poor safety index, its cold sea temperatures contributing to its low ranking.
In fifth spot, Barcelona, scored well for its restaurants but was poorly rated for its high crime index
From December 2023 to November 2024, InsureMyTrip found 19.5% of incidents reported on cruise ships were due to passenger or crew deaths, followed by Coast Guard medevacs at 17.8%.
The top five safest destinations for cruises, according to InsureMyTrip, are:
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Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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Phuket, Thailand
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Roatán Island, Honduras
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Funchal, Portugal
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Cartagena, Columbia
The top five least safe destinations for cruises are:
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Belize City
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Hamburg, Germany
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Loreto, Baja California, Mexico
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Rouen, France
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Barcelona, Spain
