Theft crimes against tourists and visitors in Slovenia

Purpose – This paper investigates the nature of theft crimes against tourist and visitors in Slovenia. The main objective of the study was to identify the characteristics of theft victims in tourist areas and to analyze the differences in risk between various crime scenes and types of crime. Design/Methodology – Using data from police crime statistics and applying a binary logistic regression, we analyzed the relationship between the crime scene and nature of the crime, as well as between the domestic/foreign status of the visitors and type of crime. Since the study uses data from official police database, one of the major challenges was to eliminate crime events from the analysis that occurred outside tourism areas.. This problem was addressed by using geotagged photos from Flickr platform with different spatial queries. Findings – The findings offer evidence indicating that the victims’ backgrounds (status and age group) and accommodation type, determine their vulnerability to certain crimes. The results show that foreign victims are more likely to suffer burglary than their domestic counterparts. In addition, crimes against foreign visitors and tourists are more likely to involve seniors, amount to larger losses, and take place in hotels, motels, and camps. On the other hand, crimes against domestic visitors are more likely to take place during evenings in bars, restaurants, and in vacation homes. Originality of the research – This study shows that combining data from different public sources into one analysis allows a more reliable analysis of police crime records