January 2018 State Department Travel Updates

Changes in State Department’s Traveler Safety Information

On January 10, 2018, the United States Department of State announced changes to its traveler safety and security information, in a fact sheet titled “New Travel Advisories for U.S. Travelers.”

The fact sheet announces that State will discontinue its previous practice of issuing travel warnings and advisories, and will instead rank countries and regions within those countries using a four-tier advisory system.

Advisory Levels

They have assigned an advisory level number to a country or region, ranking the potential risk to travelers from 1 to 4, with level 1 as the lowest risk designation of “Exercise Normal Precautions,” and Level 4 being the highest risk advisory of “Do Not Travel.”

A nation’s traveler advisory level may differ with regions within the country.

For example, Mexico received an overall threat level of 2 (Exercise Increased Caution), and the Mexican states that share a border with the United States (including Sonora) all received a designation of Level 3 (Reconsider Travel). Five Mexican states received the highest Level 4 rating – Do Not Travel.

Additional Rationale – Letter Grades

The travel advisory levels are accompanied by a general letter grade to provide a rationale for the advisory level and “other specific advice to U.S. citizens who choose to travel there.”

The letter grade that the State Department used to justify its Level 3 designation of Sonora is “C,” for crime: Widespread violent or organized crime is present in areas of the country. Local law enforcement may have limited ability to respond to serious crimes.”

Other letter designations used by the State Department in its new advisory system include: T for terrorism; U for civil unrest; H for health; N for natural disaster; E for a time-limited event; and O for other.

The State Department claims that it will review and update travel advisories based on security and safety information.

Decentralized Travel Alerts

In a move toward decentralizing travel-related information, rather than issuing a nationwide travel warning, embassies and consulates will now issue “alerts” to replace the previously used “Emergency Messages” and “Security Messages.”

This makes sense, especially considering last year’s discovery of tainted alcohol that was mainly at “all-inclusive” resorts in the Yucatan Peninsula and perhaps did not warrant the nationwide Mexico warning from State.

Alerts will cover areas such as “demonstrations, crime trends and weather events” (I think by using the term “weather events” they also mean to include natural disasters, like earthquakes and floods).

Summary

State has implemented an advisory-level rating system for foreign countries and regions within those countries, so that travelers can be aware of the potential risk level when planning a visit.

Advisories have not been eliminated, as claimed, they have just been de-centralized from top-level announcements to dissemination by the level of local embassy or consulate advisories.

Read more about specific travel warnings for Sonora, Mexico.

See the State Department Mexico embassy and consulate messages and advisories here.

And read more Mexico travel information here.

To see all of the advisory levels State has assigned, click to visit the U.S. State Department’s Travel Advisories page.