The Need to Heed Travel Advisories
Travel advisories are quite tricky. They come in different levels. There’s no blanket advisory that you can quickly follow. In most instances, it’s left on you as a traveler to decide what’s in your best interest.
Before you travel, you need to determine if there’s a travel advisory on your destination. Advisories are given for several reasons. It could be due to an outbreak in a specific area. It could also be due to security concerns. Standoffs between two governments could also result to travel advisories.
However, advisories don’t necessarily prevent you from going to those places. In some instances, you’re only asked to be more cautious during your trip. There’s also another thing called a travel ban. In this case, you won’t be allowed to travel to a particular country due to a more serious concern. If you insist in pursuing your trip, you can look for loopholes such as flying to a different country first that has flights to your final destination.
Choose safety above everything else
You need to understand that the government’s decision to offer advisories and ban is for the welfare of the public. The government has also studied different options before coming up with such a conclusion. Therefore, once you already heard an advisory, you need to follow it. You can’t disobey it and hope that your trip will be successful.
It’s also easy for you to be convinced that the trip won’t be too risky if you know someone who resides in the area. You might be interested tempted to still go on with your plans despite the risk.
In the end, it’s your choice. The government can’t penalize you for violating the advisory. However, the government also can’t help out in dire circumstances. You chose to pursue your trip despite the warning, so you have to face the consequences.
Plan your trips well
Some people travel for adventure. They want to see exciting places, and even go to destinations that aren’t too popular. There’s nothing wrong in having such an attitude. It’s only an issue when the government already assessed the situation, and viewed it as extremely risky. If you’re bringing your family with you, it’s best that you suspend the trip.
Reschedule the trip
Whether it’s an outbreak or a safety concern, it will eventually come to an end. You can go to those places at some point in the future if the concern is no longer there, and the advisory has been lifted.
Call the appropriate government agency
If you think that the advisory is unclear, and you can’t tell if there are limitations you need to follow, you need to call the government. If you decided to pursue the trip, you can keep the embassy’s phone number on speed dial. You should also be willing to immediately head back home if things get worse. Fly with the next available flight to head out of the area, and determine your next move. You can’t expect that things will soon get better.
Photo Attribution:
1st and featured image from https://i2.wp.com/tracommy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/up-to-date-travel-warnings.jpg?fit=805%2C621&ssl=1
2nd image from https://www.travelchinacheaper.com/china-travel-advisories
