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but many backpackers are unaware of travel safety advice in foreign parts

Australia is considered to be the ideal destination for gap year students planning a backpacking trip abroad but many young travellers appear to be unaware of the professional safety advice currently available.

A survey among 1,000 university students across the UK by the makers of the FlareSafe travel safety device, reveals that nearly 50 per cent hope to take a gap year with a further 22 per cent unsure and 30 per cent planning to stay at home.

Around a third of the students planning a gap year break would go to Australia, with Europe and Asia second and third choices. The USA is fourth in the ratings.

But while most of them place personal attack and robbery at the top the list of potential risks and dangers during gap year travel, only a third said they were familiar with the basic safety rules for avoiding problems. Nearly 40 per cent were unaware of travel safety guidelines.

Dave Potter of FlareBrands, makers of the FlareSafe safety device, said today that personal safety while abroad was a very real issue and a matter of considerable concern to both young travellers and their families.

“Many countries which remain popular with backpackers lack fire safety laws or law enforcement and, as recently as a year ago, the Australian authorities admitted that around 100 hostels in Sydney alone were death traps. And that’s five years on from the Childers tragedy,” he said.

The FlareSafe, three-in-one, smoke detector, SOS alarm and LED torch, is a pocket size device developed by two veteran backpackers in response to the growing dangers presented by hostels and hotels around the world. The two men have spent more than fifteen years travelling the world in hot spots like Cambodia, Ecuador and Vietnam.

The Survey

1,000 students asked………Will you be taking a gap year?

• YES [48%]
• NO [30%]
• DON’T KNOW [22%]

480 students who said they’d be taking a gap year asked a further 4 questions:

Will you go travelling?