THE Foreign Office has pledged to listen to the views of the travel industry as operators seek ways of improving Government travel advice.
Officials from the Foreign Office will consider clarifying phrases such as ‘non-essential travel’ and pinpointing flashpoint regions instead of ruling an entire country as off limits.
The move, which has been welcomed by operators, will be discussed further during talks between the Foreign Office and travel industry on February 23.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We respect the views of the travel industry and will be happy to look at its concerns.”
Specialist operators, many running tours and packages to volatile and unstable countries, were united in a bid to improve the Government’s advice on travel.
Explore Worldwide director Derek Moore, whose company took the ill-fated tour to Yemen in December in which three Briton were killed, said: “We use the Foreign Office advice and respect what they do but there are aspects of the advice which give us problems. The definitions are not sufficient. They are too loose.
“What is non-essential travel? For someone who works hard 50 weeks a year, a holiday could be essential.
“I also believe we need better definitions of where the advice is aimed at. There are examples where travel to an entire country is banned yet the problem is only in one particular area.”
More damning criticism came from Israel specialists Peltours and Longwood Holidays who have seen business to Eilat dramatically slide since the Foreign Office warned against travel in light of the crisis in the Gulf.
Longwood Holidays managing director Rafi Caplin said: “The threat to Israel was minimal. There was no credibility in the advice. You might just as well warn against travel to Paris or Rome. While Eilat was deemed unsafe, Jordan, which is a hundred yards away, was safe according to the Foreign Office.”
Caplin added that it was only the British who were warned against travelling. “Everyone else in the European Union took a sensible view,” he said. ‘We have lost at least 30% of our business because of this. When is the Foreign Office going to take responsibility for its actions?”
Peltours managing director Stuart Lewis said the Government had overstepped reasonable caution.
“Winter business to Eilat has been destroyed, totally wiped out because of the Foreign Office advice,” he said. “We have lost 50% of winter sales and about ú150,000 in revenue. Anyone who tells you they are doing well is talking cobblers. We are urging the Foreign Office to consult specialist operators as we have people on the ground who know what is going on.”
The Foreign Office said it would look at the Eilat situation during the seminar later this month. But a spokesman added: “When ourselves and the US launched attacks against Iraq in December, there was a threat it would retaliate against neighbouring states. After all, Israel was attacked during the 1991 Gulf War. Our paramount concern is for the safety of nationals overseas and it would have been irresponsible not to have warned them of the threat.”