Travel Agencies Negligent in Providing Safety Information
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
The killing of four Korean tourists in a suicide bombing in Yemen has brought to light travel agencies' perceived negligence over providing adequate safety information on tourism destinations.
The government is also facing criticism for not actively publicizing dangerous regions to travelers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade belatedly designated all parts of Yemen as a ``travel restriction region,'' Monday, following the alleged terrorist attack the previous day.
The government grades the danger of countries from one to four according to their perceived security and terrorist attack threat and offers information on its Web site www.0404.go.kr. They are, from one to four, regions where travelers need to pay attention to their safety, regions where people are advised to refrain from traveling, travel-restricted regions and banned regions.
Yemen used to belong to level two, except for Sadda. But, now, the entire country is categorized as level three. Other level two regions include Nepal, East Timor, Kuwait, parts of Israel and Iran, while level three regions include parts of Myanmar, Pakistan, Sudan and Tibet. Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq are at level four.
But many travel agencies promote programs including those regions under slogans like ``pilgrimage to the Holy Land,'' or ``experience outback,'' and do not properly inform customers of safety conditions in the regions.
On Themesay Tour Web site, the small-sized travel agency that ran the Yemen-Dubai tour program in which four travelers were killed, Yemen is described as a country with historical relics, fairytale-like architecture and beautiful desert ― but without a single mention of danger or terrorist attacks there.
Another travel agency, which recently offered the program ``Trip to ancient Middle Eastern culture,'' said Yemen is ``a country located at the southwestern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It has the world's largest sand desert and keeps the ancient look.''
In Yemen, two Belgian tourists were shot dead and four others were wounded in January 2008, and two Japanese were kidnapped by armed local people last August.
``We cannot sell tourist programs while introducing the destinations as travel restriction regions. The information on Web sites is just to show the charms of the destinations,'' a Seoul travel agency official said.
Current laws do not oblige travel agents to inform tourists of a destination's safety conditions. A revision bill was prepared to force them to notify customers of the safety levels and is pending at the National Assembly.
The Korea Association of Travel Agents said that the government notifies its member agencies of dangerous regions. ``The government tells us to advise our members to avoid going to such regions. We also recommend our members not to arrange tourist programs to levels three and four regions,'' Cho Kyu-seok, director of the association, said.
He said most agents are well aware of such information and avoid the regions. ``But small agencies, which make a specialty of specific regions like the Middle East or Africa, offer programs to those regions as a niche, as there are customers wanting to go there. As there are demands, agents make programs,'' Cho said.
``For the level two countries, the government recommends people consider carefully whether they really need to go to the regions. If travelers say they want to go, the government cannot take any preventive measures,'' he said.
He said that unless the government forces people not to go to dangerous regions, it should instead inform travelers of the possible dangers more actively. ``The government can encourage them to see the safety levels at its Web site before deciding on travel destinations,'' he said.