Travel advisories attacked

WTTC Summit Special: Government-issued travel advisories are not reliable say tourism executives.

“The last place I would go for information is the government,” said travel editor, NBC Today Show and chief correspondent, Discovery Network’s Travel Channel, Peter Greenberg. Mr Greenberg was participating in a debate at the WTTC Summit in New Delhi, discussing the issue of getting information to the public in the wake of crises such as plane crashes, acts of terrorism and natural disasters.

Also on the panel was insurance expert Frank O’Neil, Modial Assistance Group’s region director for Asia, who agreed with Mr Greenberg. “Travel advisories don’t reflect the actual situation on the ground. Governments have to send advisories out but they are out-of-date and inaccurate,” he said.

He was joined on the panel by BBC World frontman, Nik Gowing, who said governments were powerless in situations such as the Indian Ocean tsunami, and not sensitive enough to quickly gather accurate information. “The credibility of government is now on the line,” he said. “Government officials and diplomats can’t move fast enough.”

Mr Gowing described how the BBC had received pictures from Indonesia just one and three quarter hours after an earthquake hit the region last month. “We knew what was happening and we told the government.

“It happens quite often that we’re used as the first source for what is happening. They [governments] are struggling to keep up with the real time flow of information,” he said.

Mr Greenberg said another problem of relying on governments for information was the challenge of deciphering political agenda, which leads governments to withhold information if it is deemed to be in their best interests. He described the lack of information coming from Singapore authorities when a plane crashed on the runway in recent years. “They [authorities] were telling us there was no incident, but passengers were calling us from the plane telling us how many dead there were on the runway.”

TTF Australia Ltd managing director and chief executive Chris Brown was outnumbered in his view that “consumers believe governments before the media”.

“We don’t believe state travel advisories,” said Mr Greenberg. He said governments are too wary of saying “we don’t know” and instead issue “everything is ok” statements in the event of incidents.

Also speaking from the panel was WTTC chairman Vince Wolfington. “Governments today are as much influenced by the media as the public,” he said.

WTTC executive vice president, Richard Miller rounded off the debate by describing plans by the organisation to initiate an economic model to forecast the impact of disaster on the travel industry and the speed of recovery.

Report by Ginny McGrath