Last week’s massacre in Uganda has further highlighted the controversy surrounding Foreign Office travel advice.
While tour operators and the public cannot blame the Foreign Office for the advice it had issued on Uganda – there was no actual track record of trouble in the Bwindi forest – it does add credence to their demands on improving the quality of the advice. Australia, for example, had been warning against travel to the region for some time.
Tour operators have traditionally relied upon Foreign Office advice when deciding if there is a specific risk in sending clients abroad. While operators take client safety very seriously, suggestions from Foreign Secretary Robin Cook that they regard the advice as an indemnity against their own responsibilities is extremely galling.
It is tour operators, after all, which pay the price of pulling out of destinations when the advice changes. Longwood Holidays saw its Eilat business plummet when advice on Israel changed.
One of the problems is that the Foreign Office is trying to keep up to date with hundreds of countries with a skeleton staff. At last month’s Foreign Office seminar, it pledged to review how advice was formulated after operators presented a seven-point plan calling for more consistency and for advice to be region specific. These issues should be addressed as a matter of urgency.
Liz Bird – news editor.