U.S. issues increasing number of warnings to travelers abroad
By Nancy Benac
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Americans abducted in the Philippines. Unrest in Nepal. Terrorist threats from groups linked to Osama bin Laden.
Headlines around the world are giving travelers fresh incentive to keep alert for warnings before venturing off to distant lands.
In the past three weeks alone, the State Department has issued 17 new or updated travel warnings and other statements to advise Americans of concerns in countries from Algeria to Yemen.
Travel agents and tour companies monitor the advisories and combine the information with their own feedback in deciding whether to cancel or alter trips.
But ultimately, individual travelers make the final call.
"The world is a very, very big place, and if you feel uncomfortable with the notion of going to Nepal suddenly, it's OK," said Don George, travel editor of Lonely Planet guidebooks. "You should look around and choose Thailand or France or someplace else."
Washingtonian Leslie Morgan, planning a three-week trip to China and Hong Kong with her 85-year-old father, jokes about ending up in a Chinese prison camp but shows no qualms about making the trip despite recent tensions between Beijing and Washington.
"Most of the world is pretty friendly," Morgan, 50, said after visiting a passport office. "But you check out the tours and you check out the warnings that the government puts out."
Tour company Saga Holidays, which has a tour of Nepal scheduled for September, says it hasn't gotten any calls from concerned travelers despite recent violence there. Saga plans to monitor State Department travel warnings before deciding whether to pull the tour, said Kerry Crisley, speaking for the Boston-based company.
The State Department issued an announcement that "strongly recommends that American citizens defer travel to Nepal" because of unrest after the June 1 assassination of the king and other members of the royal family.
Some foreign governments and tourism boards have accused the State Department of using its travel assessments for political reasons, criticism dismissed by Karolina Walkin, a spokeswoman for the agency's consular affairs bureau.
"When it comes to the safety of American citizens, this is not an issue determined by political considerations but rather by safety and security issues," she said.
The agency put Israel on its warning list for the first time last October and issued an update earlier this year, warning Americans to defer all travel there because of "heightened threat of terrorist incidents."
Geoffrey Weill, a spokesman for Israel's tourism ministry, called the warning "very fierce," and said the government should change its wording so travelers don't feel they are being told what to do.
Other countries also offer their citizens advice on traveling abroad - including trips to the United States. Britain, for example, includes special notes urging visitors to Florida to be "vigilant about their personal safety" and advising tourists in Cincinnati, the site of April rioting, to "stay off the streets after the close of the normal working day."
The Australia-based Lonely Planet, meanwhile, offers this: "Despite the country's demonization in Western mass media, most travelers who have visited Libya report having a grand old time. The Libyan people enjoy a well-earned reputation for kindness and hospitality toward visitors." |
