Australians are keen travellers and each year make more than four million trips to international destinations. Many Australians also live abroad. Travelling or living overseas can be exciting and rewarding, but it also carries potential risks. Each year, approximately 20,000 Australians approach the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in Canberra and at our overseas missions for consular assistance.
To help Australians avoid difficulties overseas, the Department maintains travel advisories for more than 160 destinations. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's travel advice provides accurate, up-to-date information about the risks Australians might face overseas, enabling you to make well-informed decisions about whether, when and where to travel. If you are living or travelling overseas we recommend that you subscribe to receive free automatic email notification each time the travel advice for your selected destination/s is updated. That way you can ensure that you have the latest information.
We have recently made a number of improvements to our travel advisories to make them simpler and easier for you to use. The following questions and answers have been prepared to explain our travel advisories, including the changes.
On this page:
- What changes have been made to travel advice?
- How do you grade your advisories?
- What does 'reconsider your need to travel' mean?
- What is the purpose of travel advice?
- Who prepares travel advice?
- How current is the information?
- Can you provide any more information than that contained in the travel advice?
What changes have been made to travel advice?
Over the course of 2005 we have worked with travellers and members of the travel industry to make the language and presentation of our travel advisories simpler and clearer. Following these consultations, we have made a number of improvements to our travel advisories, with all advisories now available in the new format. We have:
- simplified the number of levels within travel advice to a more straightforward five-level system
- introduced a graphic table, which we call a 'continuum' at the top of each travel advice to allow you to tell at a glance the relative level of risk
- put the summary of our travel advisories in a dot point format, so the key information is easier to take in
- introduced additional headings in the safety and security section including "Crime", "Money and Valuables" and "For Parents", so it is easier to find the information you're looking for
- added a simple map to each travel advice, to help travellers understand advice about specific areas
- used more direct and simpler language, so the risks at each destination are easier to understand.
It is important to understand that while the changes may make our travel advisories look different, the changes have not been adopted because we think the risk levels at different destinations has increased or decreased. The changes are simply intended to make travel advice easier to use.
Our aim is to provide Australian travellers with a realistic understanding of the risks overseas, so they can make their own informed travel decisions in light of the potential risks. The wording of these new levels proved in focus testing to describe most clearly to travellers the relative level of risk. While we have made changes to the levels so they more accurately convey the risk at the destination, ultimately decisions about whether, where and when to travel can only be made by travellers themselves.
How do you grade your advisories?
There are five different levels of advice. The level we give a country reflects our overall assessment of the security situation in the destination and is designed to help you assess the level of risk you would face in that country.
In determining the level of a destination we consider the security risks and compare these to the general security threats in a large Australian city. We also take into account the capacity of a foreign government to deal with the risks. We don't employ strict formulas. At times our advice may not fit exactly within one of the levels - in such cases we will use language that is best suited to a specific situation and provides the most practical advice.
The five levels are as follows:
- Be alert to your own security
- Exercise caution and monitor developments that might affect your safety
- Exercise a high degree of caution
- Reconsider your need to travel
- Advised not to travel
There is a "graphic table" which we call a continuum at the top of each travel advice to help you quickly establish the relative level of each destination. In some advisories, there is more than one continuum because while the overall country is at a certain level, different regions within the country are assessed to be at higher or lower levels.
What does 'reconsider your need to travel' mean?
Where we advise you to "reconsider your need to travel", it will reflect the fact that we consider there is a high level of risk in the country, perhaps a very high threat of terrorist attack or a volatile and unpredictable security situation.
Whether to travel to a destination where we advise you to 'reconsider your need to travel' is a decision only you can make. In making this decision, you should ask yourself whether, given your own personal circumstances, you're comfortable travelling to that destination knowing that there is a high level of security risk. You should ask yourself whether you could defer your travel or choose an alternate destination. You may decide that the purpose of your travel could be accomplished in another way, for example through teleconferencing, or that you can go to another destination. If having considered these issues, you do decide to travel to that destination, we will advise you to exercise extreme caution.
What is the purpose of travel advice?
Our travel advisories are just that: advice. They are not warnings. In addition to information about security, they provide useful, practical tips on travelling such as health, visa and local laws information.
In issuing travel advice we do not 'single out' countries. Rather, we maintain a travel advice on most countries that are popular destinations for Australians in all regions of the world.
We do not and cannot make decisions for you about whether, when or where you should travel. Our travel advisories aim to help you make your own well-informed travel decisions. Our advice is not mandatory.
Travel advice, like on-line registration of your travel details and travel insurance, are tools to help you avoid difficulties while travelling. We recommend all Australians check the travel advice for their upcoming destinations, both before leaving Australia and while travelling. You can subscribe to the travel advice for any destination, at no charge, to receive email notification each time the travel advice is updated.
Who prepares travel advice?
At DFAT the preparation of travel advice is taken very seriously. We draw on a range of sources of information, including:
- assessments from Australian missions overseas about the security conditions in which they operate
- our experience of the common or recurring consular problems Australians are experiencing overseas
- intelligence reports, and in particular ASIO threat assessments
- the advisories prepared by our consular partners (US, UK, New Zealand and Canada) although we may reach different conclusions.
When necessary, we will also liaise with other Government departments and agencies to ensure that the information we provide is as useful as possible for Australian travellers.
How current is the information?
The information in our travel advice is as current as we can possibly make it. Travel advisories are kept under constant review but as a matter of course every travel advice is reissued and reassessed every quarter. If developments in a country require more regular updates we will respond through the travel advice.
The Department's Consular Emergency Centre, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and our network of missions overseas, give as good a coverage of security and related developments around the world as we can provide. Travel advice is updated promptly in response to these developments, and that is why we encourage Australians not only to read travel advice before they leave, but also to monitor it carefully while they are travelling.
Travel advice is not however, updated simply to reflect the fact that a security incident overseas has occurred. We are not a news service that reports on all incidents. The travel advice may contain examples of security incidents from the recent past but these serve as an example of the sorts of threats mentioned in the advice. When security incidents occur overseas, we assess the risk to Australians travellers - if the level of risk has not changed, the travel advice will not be changed.
Can you provide any more information than is contained in the travel advice?
No. We produce only one form of advice, in the form of the travel advisories. An important principle behind our work is that the advice we provide to you is exactly the advice we provide to our own staff, to other government agencies or to the private sector.
We operate on a strict principle of no double standards: that is, our best advice is the advice that is made available to the general public in our travel advisories. We do not reserve privileged information for others - be they our own staff or for other government officials. You can be confident that the information and advice we provide reflects our best assessment of the safety and security issues they may face in a particular country.
As part of this commitment, if we withdraw staff from a post because of security concerns or take other measures to protect them, we will state this clearly in the travel advice so that the decisions we make about our own staff welfare are transparent to the wider community.
If you phone the Department, we will not be able to add to the advice that is published on the internet. That is our most up-to-date advice and we cannot, and should not, predict what will happen in the future.
Courtesy @ http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/advice_meaning.html
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