Calder criticises FCO advice
UK: Travel editor says government website is of limited use for travellers
The Independent’s travel editor Simon Calder (pictured) has launched a stinging attack on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, stating that FCO advice is of little or no use to backpackers.
Calder is concerned that the advice given, if generally factually correct, can be misleading for travellers. Take the example of the island of Zanzibar, where UK travellers are urged to avoid shopping malls. There are none in Zanzibar. As for New Zealand, he writes, the government advice is that most visits are trouble-free and that the risk of terrorism is low – even if the FCO fails to state that the country has “one of the worst accident records in the developed world”, with about 150 per cent more deaths per head than in the UK.
Even more worrying is that UK travellers are told they should avoid Indonesia – that is, all of its 13,000-odd islands – because of a perceived terror threat, while Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are “off the danger list”, is spite of several UK citizens being killed in terror attacks on Israel.
Calder sums the situation up thus: “In the backpacker bars of the world, Foreign Office travel advice is regarded as about as much use as a 1971 edition of The Hitchhikers Guide to Europe.”
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