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The Safest and Unsafest Holiday Destinations for LGBTQ+ People


By: Ian Wright | Last Updated: April 25, 2025

The Safest and Unsafest Holiday Destinations for LGBTQ+ People

For LGBTQ+ holiday makers, planning a trip abroad can mean you have to consider a little bit more than just how far your hotel is from the beachfront. You might also want to find out how safe your desired destination is for you, so that you can enjoy your holiday without worrying about your personal safety and focus on the things that matter most on holiday – taking in the sights, soaking up the sun, and exploring new cultures!

To find out which destinations are the safest for LGBTQ+ holiday makers, Merchant Machine has analysed metrics such as the level of protection against LGBTQ+ hate crime and speech, and gay marriage laws. We’ve also looked at crime statistics on a more general level, including robbery rates, crime indexes and the peacefulness of each country according to the Global Peace Index.

Our anti LGBTQ+ discrimination policy score takes into account several factors, including:

  • Laws against hate crimes relating to sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersexuality
  • Laws against hate speech relating to sexual orientation and gender identity
  • Policies tackling hatred relating to sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersexuality

Malta is the safest holiday destination for LGBTQ+ people

Malta comes out on top as the safest destination for LGBTQ+ holiday makers. The Mediterranean island country has an LGBTQ+ travel safety index of 369, which after Canada is the second best figure for this metric out of every country we analysed, and a relatively low robbery rate of 47.

Malta’s travel security risk rating is 1, which is classified as low on a scale ranging from 0-4. A country with a low risk rating is politically and socially stable with few prominent security concerns and low levels of non-violent crime.

Other destinations that score highly in our analysis are Chile and Luxembourg. Homosexuality and gay marriage are legal in both of these countries, and whilst Luxembourg is considered a low travel security risk country, Chile is considered moderate risk.

For Chile, this means that although the country is typically politically stable, there are periodic demonstrations and protests, with possible instances of violent civil unrest.

RankCountryLGBTQ+ Travel Safety IndexLGBTQ+ Hate Crime & Speech IndexLGBTQ+ Laws (Homosexuality)LGBTQ+ Laws (Gay Marriage)Robbery RateCrime Index*Travel Security Risk RatingGlobal Peace Index
1Malta3696LegalLegal4740.391
Low
-
2Chile2550LegalLegal63353.422
Moderate
1.831
3Luxembourg2694LegalLegal7634.131
Low
-
4Belgium3510LegalLegal16744.581
Low
1.496
5Sweden3774LegalLegal86481
Low
1.46
6New Zealand3030LegalLegal7842.881
Low
1.253
7France3398LegalLegal15051.991
Low
1.868
8Ireland2968LegalLegal4545.511
Low
1.326
9United Kingdom3468LegalLegal12046.071
Low
1.658
10Canada3840LegalLegal6241.891
Low
1.33

*Travel security risk rating

  • 0- minor
  • 1- low
  • 2- moderate
  • 3- high
  • 4- extreme

The UK Ranks as the 9th Safest Holiday Destination for LGBTQ+ Travellers

The UK comes in 9th in our analysis of the safest holiday destinations for LGBTQ+ people.

This country has the sixth highest score in our analysis for the LGBTQ+ travel safety index with 346, and has a travel security risk rating of 1, which is considered to be low risk. Homsexuality and gay marriage are both legal here, and there are laws against hate speech and crimes relating to sexual orientation and gender identity.

 

Russia is the most dangerous holiday destination for LGBTQ+ people

Merchant Machine’s research found that Russia is the most dangerous holiday destination for LGBTQ+ people, compared with the rest of the OCED countries we analysed.

With the lowest LGBTQ+ travel safety score of any country on our list (-1), the worst score for anti LGBTQ+ discrimination policyLGBTQ+ hate crime and speech (16), and gay marriage still being illegal, Russia tops our list as the least safe country. 

According to our research, Russia has no national, federal, or local laws to protect people against discriminationhate crimes and speech relating to their sexual orientation, gender identity, or intersexuality.

Russia also ranks as the least peaceful country out of every destination we analysed, with a Global Peace Index score of 2.993. The lower this figure is, the more peaceful the country is – it reflects the level of societal safety and security, the ongoing domestic and international conflict, and the degree of militarisation within the country. 

Following Russia as the second least safe destination for LGBTQ+ people to visit on holiday is Israel, which scores 219 for LGBTQ+ travel safety and 4 on our anti LGBTQ+ discrimination policyLGBTQ+ hate crime and speech index.

Other dangerous countries include Turkey, Mexico, and South Korea. Whilst homoexuality is not illegal in any of these countries, gay marriage is only legal in Mexico. It is unrecognised in both Turkey and South Korea.

 

Top 10 Most Dangerous Countries

RankCountryLGBTQ+ Travel Safety IndexAnti LGBTQ+ discrimination policy IndexLGBTQ+ Laws (Homosexuality)LGBTQ+ Laws (Gay Marriage)Robbery RateCrime Index*Travel Security Risk RatingGlobal Peace Index
1Russia-116LegalNot Legal639.992 Moderate2.993
2Israel2194Legal-3731.472
Moderate
2.633
3Turkey480LegalUnrecognised2439.622
Moderate
2.843
4Mexico2550LegalLegal17954.193
High
2.62
5South Korea9314LegalUnrecognised226.681
Low
1.877
6Estonia1970LegalCivil Unions1523.711
Low
1.612
7Greece17514LegalCivil Unions4045.852
Moderate
1.932
8Japan8310LegalUnrecognised222.191
Low
1.373
9Switzerland2708LegalLegal2121.621
Low
1.323
10Slovenia2432LegalCivil Unions1122.281
Low
1.315

*Travel security risk rating

  • 0- minor
  • 1- low
  • 2- moderate
  • 3- high
  • 4- extreme

 

Now that you know the safest and least safe countries for LGBTQ+ holiday makers, will you keep this information in mind when planning your next trip away?

 

Methodology:

Based on the 38 OECD countries, we ranked each country across several categories: LGBTQ+ travel safety, LGBTQ+ hate crime and speech laws, LGBTQ+ rights (to marry), robbery rates, crime rates, travel security risk, and peacefulness.

 

Sources:

Global peace Index

  • https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/ 

 

Robbery rate

  • Robberies per 100,000 people, 2017
  • “https://www.getargon.io/posts/society/crime/world-robbery-stats/ 
  • https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/robery/ 
  • https://knoema.com/atlas/Japan/Robbery-rate#:~:text=In%202016%2C%20robbery%20rate%20for,per%20100%2C000%20population%20in%202016.” 

 

Crime Index

  • https://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp 

 

National Cyber Security Index

  • https://ncsi.ega.ee/ncsi-index/?type=c 

 

Digital Development level

  • https://ncsi.ega.ee/ncsi-index/?type=c 

 

Travel security risk rating

  • 0- minor
  • 1- low
  • 2- moderate
  • 3- high
  • 4- extreme
  • https://www.travelguardworldwide.com/content/dam/tg-worldwide/documents/2021-aig-travel-security-risk-map_web.pdf 

 

LGBT Hate

  • 2 – national / federal application
  • 1 – applicable in some regions only
  • http://www.rainbow-europe.org/#0/8693/0 

 

LGBTQ+ Laws

  • https://www.equaldex.com/ 

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