Delegates at Monday's first session of the seminar

African tourism ministers were united on Monday May 10,  in calling for an appraisal of the issuing of travel advisory warnings by Western governments.

Getting down to business in the first working session of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) Commission for Africa, being held this week at the Plantation Club, tourism ministers from across the continent highlighted the problems caused by the imposition of travel warnings by a number of Western countries, notably the United States.

Vice-President and Minister for Tourism and Transport Joseph Belmont called for discussion between the imposing and receiving countries, before governments warn their people about travelling to certain countries.

In a demand echoed by a number of the delegates, Minister Belmont said that the advisories should be specific to the country involved, not applied across entire regions, and that the same standards should apply, wherever in the world they are issued.

Minister Belmont was speaking after a number of delegates had pointed out that Spain had not had a travel advisory warning imposed upon it after the recent Madrid train bombings, but that the entire East African region had been warned against, following the November 2002 attacks in Mombassa, a warning which also affects Seychelles.

The WTO Secretary General, Francesco Frangialli, who is attending the five-day seminar, said that there has been a multiplication of travel advisories in recent years, and that it is normal and justified for a government to try to protect its people.

But he added that, "governments have to be aware of the consequences for the destination."

Mr Frangialli said that sometimes the warnings given are not suitable, are often too vague and occasionally entirely unjustified.

He also warned governments against the practice of issuing warnings on a regional level and of leaving outdated warnings on official websites.

Mr Frangialli said that the issue would be discussed at the next meeting of the WTO's executive council and may be put to the UN.

"The image of Africa has to be defended, problems in one country reflect badly upon the whole continent," said WTO Commission for Africa head Jorge Alicerces Valentim, after the Kenyan delegation said that prior to the Mombassa attacks tourism had accounted for 35 percent of Kenya's foreign exchange earnings, a figure which subsequently tumbled to only five percent.

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