Two travel
agencies say Ministry of Foreign Affairs travel advisories need
immediate improvements and should be brought more in line with
Australia.
Flight Centre general manager Jeremy van de Klundert says with more
kiwis than ever set to travel overseas this year, the government's
travel advisory system needs a greater focus on traveller awareness
and assisting individuals to learn about and assess risk.
Van de Klundert says New Zealand travel advisories are currently
"buried" within the ministry website, whereas Australia has its own
site,
smartraveller.gov.au ,
which is highly publicised across the Tasman through both
advertising and links to the site on a variety of other travel
based websites.
"The Australian government has earmarked $A9.7 million over five
years from 2003 on promoting the Smart Traveller programme, which
means it is one of Howard government's top 10 promotional
priorities. I think this puts it in perspective," he says.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs has also recently
revamped its site, bringing in five different warning levels and
summarising health issues, local crime, customs and security risks,
giving travellers a more complete picture of risks in their
destination, he says.
Van de Klundert says as an increasing number of people are booking
much of their travel online where there is no travel consultant to
advise of risks, it is becoming more important than ever to offer
comprehensive travel information.
"While we've made a renewed effort to direct our clients to the
MFAT website , it
would be a positive move to have a high profile, well publicised,
and more comprehensive site specifically for New Zealand
travellers.
"For a country of such avid and adventurous travellers as New
Zealand, our travel advisories definitely have room for
improvement."
Corporate travel specialist FCm Travel Solutions general manager,
Christian Casbolt, says business travellers are often faced with
travelling to less desirable destinations than those travelling for
pleasure.
Casbolt says detailed, specific information that breaks down
countries into various regions would allow employer and employee to
assess risk and plan for all contingencies more thoroughly.
"As well as country reports, we want to know, say, if Cape Town is
safer than Johannesburg, or how safe Bangkok is, rather than just
certain parts of Thailand. This level of detail is something
business travellers need to know," he says.
Casbolt and van de Klundert say while getting the right information
to travellers is a shared responsibility between agents, the
ministry and travellers themselves, "in this age of uncertainty"
the more detailed information travellers are able to access easily
the better.
