Is it safe to visit Amsterdam on New Year's?

Upvote:0

As I was told, the threat level for the Netherlands is mantained as substantial, as explained in this article.

There states:

The threat level for the Netherlands has again been maintained at ‘substantial’. This means that there is a real chance of an attack in the Netherlands.[...]

Also the nl Times states that the is a concrete risk in the country, as explained in this article.

Even the guardian has its says: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/16/terror-threat-jihadis-five-countries

Upvote:5

You don't say where you are from, so I will cite a few countries advice. The UK's Foreign and Commonwealth office notes only a "general risk of terrorism" - about as low as you get - and the US state department currently has no alerts or warnings for the Netherlands. Of course, terrorism is by its nature difficult to predict, but the agencies that would be expected to know and be concerned do not appear to be advising against travel to the Netherlands in any way.

It is important to put the risks from terrorism in perspective. In almost all countries save for a few exceedingly violent ones, traffic incidents are the principal cause of violent deaths (as we discussed on another question, despite all the attention of the Paris attacks, the amount of people who died there was equivalent to 10-12 days of French road casualties). In this respect, Wikipedia places the Netherlands as having the 13th lowest road deaths per capita with only 3.9 deaths per 100000, considerably lower than say the USA at 11.6, Australia at 5.6 or Russia at 18.6. These data do not look at how many of these fatalities are tourists however. Beyond even that, Amsterdam has relativley little road traffic (at least in the central, touristy areas). It does however have many canals, which the UK's FCO notes several tourists drown in each year, normally while intoxicated. Try to avoid this.

While it's of lower concern, you may also be pleased to know that the Netherlands reports a low intentional homicide rate of 0.9 per 100000, again ranking well against most of the world - although one might anticipate that a more of those crimes are concentrated in a major city like Amsterdam then in the rural regions of the country.

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