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A Sense of Proportion. The UK Foreign Office's country
guide to Spain no longer reads, "The vast majority of
visits to Spain are trouble-free," but it would still
be true. And the US State Department's consular information
sheet on Spain still says, "...most of the estimated
one million American tourists have trouble free visits to
Spain each year." I have lived in Spain for over twenty
years and, although my house was burgled once, I have never
been robbed in person (so far as I can recall, I have suffered
one very unthreatening mugging effort and one attempt to pick
my pockets, and I was once conned out of a small amount of
money). So, it is not probable that you will be robbed or
have anything unpleasant happen to you, and you should not
let nervousness spoil your visit. But you can reduce the odds
of becoming a victim still further by being sensible, reasonably
cautious, and respecting local sensibilities. You are more
likely to attract criminal attention if you are conspicuous,
not just in terms of your appearance, dress, or behaviour,
but also of that air of "Hey, I'm on holiday, nothing
bad can happen to me!" which wrong-doers are quite likely
to consider a provocation.
Terrorism and Organized Crime.
Of the three threats I mention above, the danger least affecting
visitors is organized crime, a new phenomenon in Spain, still
of relatively insignificant proportions, and so unlikely to
affect visitors or tourists. It exists, however, particularly
in Mediterranean coastal areas, and the Spanish police estimate
that there are several hundred "mafias" in the country.
In particular, there has been a wave of violent assaults on
country houses and second homes in Catalonia recently which
has caused considerable public alarm. But I repeat, ordinary
visitors and tourists are unlikely to be affected.
Terrorism in Spain is a very serious problem, but has never
been something visitors really needed to fear, even when ETA
was at its most active, though it is true that a Briton was
seriously injured by a car bomb in Fuengirola in 2002. Basque
separatist terrorism seems to have become exhausted anyway,
with talks under way between ETA and the government to end
the violence. Islamic terrorism, however, is still a threat,
its most tragic manifestation to date being the Atocha bombings
of March 11th, 2004, which killed 173 and injured nearly 1,000.
Though this was horrible and traumatic for Spanish society,
no more attacks have occurred since.
Note that, however unlikely you are to be directly affected
by terrorism in Spain, it is much less improbable that the
nuisance caused by terrorism could disrupt your visit, whether
in the form of assassinations leading to roadblocks and the
like, or bombs deliberately being placed to disrupt tourism,
as when Malaga airport was closed by a bomb threat in 2001.
For this reason, you might want to check whether your holiday
insurance covers things like flight delays or unplanned
hotel stays under these circumstances.
Street Crime. In contrast,
theft and robbery are ever present dangers in Spain and you
should take due care, without being overly paranoid. On the
positive side, the use of firearms in street crime is practically
unknown, and rape and sexual assault rates are very low. But
you should beware of pickpocketing, muggings and other forms
of theft and robbery. According to the Seventh
UN Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice
Systems, in 2000, the overall crime rate per 100,000
inhabitants in Spain was only slightly over a third of that
in France, but the number of robberies was very much higher
(I will not quote figures, as there are evident differences
in reporting criteria between the two countries). So take
reasonable care: the British Foreign Office recommends keeping
your passport, credit cards, travel documents and money separately
from each other; I recommend keeping such things in closed,
if possible zipped pockets. Never carry an unclosed bag, and
do not keep valuables of any kind in a satchel or backpack:
if this is unavoidable, wear it on your front. Do not carry
thick wads of banknotes: distribute your money in different
pockets. Fold your paper money in such a way that the lowest
denomination notes are on the outside. Do not carry all your
money with you, but beware of leaving it in your hotel room:
apart from pilfering by staff or other guests (no more —
or less — common than anywhere else), a certain type
of Spanish burglar specialises in hotels, even quite tall
ones.
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