The African travel industry reacts to US warnings

Tourism officials react to the "worldwide" travel alert issued by the US State Department, due to lost revenue of its low risk for terrorism destinations

The global comprehensive on-line survey How Global Voices Shape Travel Choices, fielded with Travelzoo, revealed that 55% of the world's travelers trust government alerts regarding area safety above any other sources, when choosing their holiday destinations.

Following the recent deadly terror attacks in Paris, Mali and Egypt, the US State Department warned all US citizens against "possible risks of travel" worldwide until February 24^th due to concerns regarding terrorist activities of ISIS, Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram.

Jeff Chatterton, owner of global crisis communications consultancy Checkmate Public Affairs and David Frost, CEO of the Southern African Tourism Services Association consider the alerts "completely useless", "never helpful", "not location specific" and over all not fair for the African competitive countries with reduced risk of terrorism such as Botswana, South Africa, Mauritius and the Seychelles, which have not experienced international terrorism threats or incidents during recent years.

Nigel Vere Nicoll - CEO of the African Travel & Tourism Association (ATTA) declared:

"As an industry, we are generally not keen on travel advisories, but we do respect them, and we do assist. But they need to be specific, not blanket. US alerts tend to be dramatic and to over-generalize, but many African destinations will be among those needlessly harmed by this blanket alert, which is frankly ridiculous."

The Global Voices study showed that the tourists decision-making regarding traveling destinations relies on their governments (55%), on family and friends (34%) and on travel writers or travel deal sources like Travelzoo.

"The survey reflects what we see - UK travel advisories are the most heeded, and they have implications for the insurance industry, for operators, for everyone.

"They can be devastating from a tourism standpoint - tourism to Kenya's coastal resorts virtually came to a halt after the Foreign Office issued a non-essential travel advisory on Kenya last year.

"But at least they are relatively specific. Worldwide alerts like this one from the US are counter-productive, and will affect our industry very badly - and, in my view, they promote the goals of the people who perpetrate the problem.

"Everyone knows terrorism is a widespread problem, but they are basically saying that nowhere is safe - from St Barts to Botswana - which is ridiculous", Vere Nicoll concludes.