Travel advice consultation launched
Travellers are being asked to give their views on how the travel advice issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is presented.
The consultation has been launched today and will inform a review of the travel advice service, used by millions to check safety and security when they go abroad.
The service, on GOV.UK, provides objective, accurate and up-to-date information on crime, health, threats from terrorism and local laws and customs in each country, as well as details on practical issues, like visa requirements and local currency.
It also provides a green, amber and red indicator system to provide an at-a-glance view of countries or areas where travel is not advised.
There were more than 40 million individual hits on the online advice in 2015.
The review is asking travellers how they use the service, whether they find it useful and whether the way information is presented can be improved to make it more accessible. It will consider the services provided in other countries, including France and Australia, which have additional category levels.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said:
We want to make sure British travellers continue to have information that is readily accessible and easy to understand so they can make informed decisions whenever and wherever they travel.
Our travel advice is a long-established and well respected source of information, used by millions of Britons every year and we want to make sure it continues to be the best possible. We will look at what changes can be made to provide a greater level of detail and better understanding of the level of threat travellers face in any given country.
This is particularly important at a time when the risks to British travellers, particularly from terrorism, have evolved significantly, and more people than ever want easily accessible advice.
The consultation is available here and is open until 22 April 2016. Any changes to travel advice would be considered later this year. The travel industry will be closely consulted for their views.
Further information:
-
The safety of British Nationals abroad is a paramount concern for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). We provide information to help British Nationals make informed decisions about their safety and travel abroad. We’ve been providing travel advice since 1990. It’s designed to give British travellers practical, objective, accurate and up-to-date information and advice. Ultimately, the decision on whether to travel to a specific country must always remain a personal one. We can’t stop British nationals travelling to a particular destination, although we do sometimes advise against ‘all travel’ or ‘all but essential travel’ to various countries/regions.
-
The travel advice includes assessments of risk drawing on expert sources of information available to the government including intelligence, local knowledge, and experience of our staff at our missions overseas.
-
You can find further information about how we put our travel advice together here
-
Our Travel Advice for 225 countries and territories can be found here
For each country we give an initial summary with more detailed information on:
- terrorism/ security
- crime
- political situation
- local travel
- road/rail/air-travel
- local laws and customs
- entry requirements
- health
- natural disasters
- staying safe & healthy abroad
- being a responsible tourist
- contact details