Crime rates can appear higher than expected if there are a lot of tourists (non-permanent residents) in your community, because the number of crimes (violent, property, or both) are divided by the permanent population, creating a crime rate per 1,000 residents. If there are a lot of visitors, these people can increase the number of crimes, but do not count in establishing the rate because they don't permanently reside there, thus increasing the crime rate per 1,000 residents.

Therefore it is always valuable to look at both the crime rate, and the actual reported or estimated number of crime incidents in the neighborhood or community.

That being said, not all tourist areas are dangerous or high crime. Nor is being a tourist area an excuse for having a high violent crime rate. Many top tourist cities do not make NeighborhoodScout’s annual list of most dangerous cities. In Florida, a state full of top tourist destinations, many do not make the list. On the 2017 list: Daytona Beach, Orlando, Miami, Miami Beach, Tallahassee, and others. But other top Florida destinations do not make the list: Pensacola, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Kissimmee, and more. In South Carolina, Hilton Head does not make the list, but Myrtle Beach is regularly on the list. And Plymouth, Massachusetts, the landing spot for the Mayflower, and a community who’s economy is dominated by tourism, is one of the safest cities in America.

This underscores that dangerous cities have more to do with the nature and character of the place, and less to do with simply being 'a tourist destination.'