Travel Information System: Change is Imminent

As of October 1st, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will change its travel information system: Like in many other countries, there will be a "traffic light system" with four levels instead of the previous six. New is also that regional differences within individual countries will be indicated using maps. An example of this is Egypt, where there are yellow, orange, and red regions. Additionally, roaming SMS will in the future contain the contact details of the responsible embassy.

Travel Information System with Fewer Levels

The levels "good security standard" (1) and "security risk" (2) will remain unchanged, which will now be green and yellow respectively. The other, previous four levels will be combined in pairs, namely to "high security risk" (3) and "travel warning" (4) in the colors orange and red. Previously, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated the high security risk with two levels, depending on whether it applied only to a region or the entire country. The two highest levels were the partial travel warning for a region and the travel warning for the entire country.

In terms of content, "everything remains the same, but it will be understandable for the citizen, for the traveler," said the head of the citizen service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Karin Fichtinger. She confirmed that the individual assessments will not change as part of the transition. "We are adopting everything one-to-one in terms of text," she emphasized.

However, there will still be a stronger nuance on the overview map, said Fichtinger. "For the travel industry, it is unpleasant when a country like Egypt suddenly turns red. Therefore, we decided to keep the world map as it is, so it is clear that it is to be treated differently than, for example, Libya," explained the top diplomat with regard to the North African neighboring country of Egypt, for which a nationwide travel warning applies. Furthermore, detailed maps will indicate which levels apply to individual parts of the country. In the case of Egypt, a travel warning applies to the border region with Libya and the north of the Sinai Peninsula, a high security risk for the rest of the peninsula, and a security risk for the other parts of the country. Fichtinger also emphasized that the representations are for informational purposes only, and travelers cannot make legal claims based on them.

Embassy Phone Numbers

By the autumn holidays, there should also be another service from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, namely an SMS notification with the phone number of the responsible Austrian embassy when traveling abroad. Specifically, mobile network providers are to supplement their automatically sent roaming info SMS when logging into a foreign network with the relevant information. "We hope that this is an additional service for travelers," said Fichtinger.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also once again promoted the travel registration for trips abroad, which is possible via the website http://auslandsregistrierung.bmeia.gv.at or the mobile app "Auslandsservice". Travelers would thus help the ministry "so that we can help them," emphasized the head of the press department of the BMEIA, Clemens Mantl. He also countered reports that there had been a data leak in this system. Rather, individuals who had registered had malware installed on their computers, causing the data to leak individually before being collected for sale.

High Number of Accesses

Mantl said that the travel information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is "very well received." "We have over five million accesses every year." Fichtinger pointed out that the information is continuously updated. There are up to 600 changes per year, often involving only minor details. Additionally, the information for each individual country is reviewed twice a year, in close cooperation with the respective embassies. When asked by APA whether harmonization at the EU level was possible, Fichtinger mentioned the different national concerns. As an example, she mentioned the East African country of Burundi. Only a handful of Austrians stay there, compared to thousands from the former colonial power Belgium. Thus, an event there "has a different impact for Belgium than for us." However, there is a trend towards harmonization and exchange at the EU level, for example through a joint platform where EU states store their travel advisories to facilitate coordination.

(APA/Red)

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