Earlier today the UK government lifted its travel advice against visiting Sharm el Sheikh including the airport and the areas of Sharm el Maya, Hadaba, Naama Bay, Sharks Bay and Nabq.
That’s good news both for tourists and the tourist industry in that area, but it does raise the general question of how would anybody know that if they hadn’t stumbled across it in the news.
All travellers, whether business or tourist, should check how safe their destination is.
You may recall the story of British woman, Eloise Dixon, who was shot twice in Brazil after she and her family accidentally drove into a favela run by a drug gang while reportedly looking for water. Mrs Dixon fortunately survived. Her family made a potentially fatal but innocent mistake because they were uninformed.
So the reality is we may think we are happy that our primary destination is safe but not understand the situation or risks outside the main areas.
To return to the main question then, where does anybody find out about how a country or area of a country is assessed? Each of our own countries will give formal advice based on their understanding and assessment of how their country folk are received.
In the UK you can go to the Foreign Office website which gives the latest assessment of security in any country, as well as a myriad of other essential travel information.
The US also provides an excellent open source of advice on their Travel State Gov website.
And of course, if you are working through any form of travel agent they too should be able to give you an opinion, but please remember that their’s may not necessarily correspond with your government advice.
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