True of a lot of places. When I travel to a place I'm not familiar with, I usually take the guided bus tour. Those tours never show you the seedy part of town.
That said, I have had tour guides in many places, both in the U.S. and in foreign countries, give us tourists detailed cautions. When I was in Florence with a tour group, our guide gave us all explicit safety precautions....places to not go to even in the daytime, and particularly, how to protect valuables from pickpockets and thieves. Mopeds were popular forms of transportation there at least at that time, and one of the theives' tricks was to drive the moped as close as possible to the sidewalk and when they saw a woman with a shoulder bag on the shoulder closest to the street, they would either grab the strap or use something sharp to cut the strap and pull the handbag away. We women were told to always put a shoulder bag on the shoulder farthest from the street and to always hold the bag as close to the body as possible -- never let it swing about loosely. Too easy for thieves to take your bag.
An international 'C O P S " show working with various law enforcement to sting these vermin.
Killing two birds with one stone.
Entertaining & sending a message at the same time.