Is it safe to travel to the United States? UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Germany question

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YSsafety
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Terror Attacks, mass- shootings, natural disasters like Hurricanes Maria and Irma and the recent wildfires in California, the ZIKA Virus, Hepatitis outbreaks are becoming a big worry for U.S. tourism officials and a problem for the travel and tourism economy of the United States.

Making it harder to enter the US and banning some countries altogether is not making the US a more welcoming place.

While warnings for travel to the United States aren’t new, they have picked up significantly in the last few weeks, following these events.

Here are some of the recent warnings or alerts issued by government to warn against travel to the United States of America.

  • Canada :   In the safety and security section, the advisory says that travelers should be aware that, “The possession of firearms and the frequency of violent crime are generally more prevalent in the U.S. than in Canada.”
  • UK.:  At least three of the newer travel warnings were related to Hurricanes Maria and Irma. On its travel advice page for the United States, updated Oct. 13, the United Kingdom government says that “terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in the USA” and that these attacks could happen “in places visited by foreigners.” In addition, it said, “The post-storm environment in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands remains particularly fragile, with continuing power outages and unstable buildings.”

The shooting in Las Vegas that left 59 people dead may have prompted some of the recent warnings.

On Oct. 3, the day after the incident, for example, the New Zealand government’s Safe Travel site updated its travel information to the United States. A statement under the section detailing crime says: “Active shooter incidents occur from time to time in the United States.” A sentence addressing the specifics of the shooting follows. The section also says that violent crime and gun possession are more prevalent in the United States than in New Zealand but adds that these crimes “rarely involve tourists.”

Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade updated its United States travel advice page on its site; while the page doesn’t specifically mention the Las Vegas shooting, it does say that the United States has witnessed a number of mass shootings in recent years. In addition, the advisory says that there is an increased threat of terrorism and extremist violence worldwide which “should be borne in mind by Irish citizens living and working in the USA.”

And Germany’s travel advisory, updated on Oct. 13, warns of more political demonstrations and the increased danger of politically motivated violence in the United States. According to the advisory, German nationals should therefore, “particularly in urban centers,” monitor the news and avoid demonstrations on a long-term basis.

The advisory said, too, that, in the wake of Hurricanes Maria and Irma, its citizens should carefully examine the necessity and possibility of travel to Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and parts of Florida. According to the advisory, “There must still be flooding and landslides” in the affected areas.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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