Security in Portugal

[Peterc]

Hi there,
We have mostly learned to think of Portugal as safe but with all the bad publicity recently when that poor kid went missing, families with young kids are not going there as much as they used to. Do you think this could have a huge negative impact on families moving over there? I think Portugal is a great country after visiting it a few times.

[mkettner]

Great question. I don't believe it will affect anything to badly. Most countries deal with things like this from time to time. While there may be a short term drop in Tourism, it is only last until the next event happens in a neighboring country.

With that said, Portugal is listed as having medium amounts of risk when pertaining to Crime, Corruption, and Infrastructure (meaning government stability). This isn't to bad when you compare it to the US which has a medium risk of Crime and Terrorism. The source for this information comes from a group of ex-CIA intelligence officers who profile potential risk in different locations.

Again thank you for posting the question.

Michael

[jsar]

I don't think Madeleine's disappearance will affect tourism in any way - Portugal is still one of the safest countries in Europe, if not the safest.

Of course there is crime here but kidnapping/murdering children is not part of the Portuguese profile. There are only 9 children in the police missing persons files.