Foreign Affairs comes with clearer travel advice
The Dutch traveler takes center stage travel industry conference. Last Wednesday, Minister Timmermans (Foreign Affairs) invited parties from the travel industry to his department to discuss the duty of care for Dutch travelers. There he also revealed that travel advice become clearer by working with color codes.
For the first time, representatives of travel organisations, emergency centres, travel insurers, tourism training institutes, airlines, Schiphol and the ministry came together. 'If all those involved know how to find each other and work together online, we will be stronger,' said Timmermans at the meeting. 'The Dutch themselves have the responsibility to travel well prepared and to avoid problems. But it is our role to inform the Dutch as well as possible and to help them if they get into trouble.'
According to the minister, the need for online communication is undisputed. 'It is much easier than 10 years ago to visit the craziest places in the world. You book a ticket online and you're gone the next day. That's why it should be much easier to get the right information quickly online.'
Color codes for travel advice
Minister Timmermans announced that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will work with color codes in travel advice in order to be able to indicate specifically within a country or region to which areas the travel advice applies. An example of this is the poor security situation in the south of Thailand namely the four southern provinces of Yale, Narathiwat, Pattani and Songkhla. A different color code would then apply to these provinces than to the rest of Thailand.
The new travel advice aims to avoid confusion among travelers. Color codes can be used to indicate more targeted travel advice within a destination. The new way of working will come into effect on July 16.
It would be nice to indicate the reason in addition to the color code.
Personally, I would like to know, for example, if a code red is due to an outbreak of typhus, malaria danger, political unrest, ethnic conflict, hatred of foreigners, war conflict or similar matters.
Does it also seem really useful for the color blind among us or do they not need to be informed? For the record, I am NOT color blind.
Then we put the word red in the red box for those colorblind people with green letters.
Then it will be clear to everyone.
What many travelers would like to be able to cancel faster in the event of a calamity. No more tug-of-war with travel organizations or booking sites. But that won't happen.
Nice idea, but hope they base it on reality. It is a pity that so much has been written so badly about Thailand for so long, that the small middle class, such as restaurants and bars, and also guesthouses are currently not yet 20%. (even take into account that the Low season has started) They will not survive until the high season starts and all because of the negative info. It's safe !!
There is NOTHING going on except for the 4 southern provinces, so pack your bags and don't leave our friends alone.