The European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) questions the purpose of the U.S. State Department’s Europe travel alert issued on Tuesday.
“It is always puzzling as to the purpose of these announcements,” stated Tom Jenkins, CEO of ETOA. “The declaration that high-season tourists ‘present greater targets for terrorists’ seems purposefully irksome. … Among the 500 million people who live in Europe, it is the tourists who have been picked out as being subjects of terrorism ‘because it’s the beginning of summer.’”
The alert was intended to caution travelers in advance of Europe’s busy summer travel season about the risks of potential terrorist attacks throughout Europe that could target major events, tourist sites, restaurants, commercial centers and transportation hubs.
The alert supersedes the Europe travel alert issued by the State Department in March following the Brussels bombings and expires on Aug. 31, 2016.
The ETOA pointed out that the State Department’s release was a travel alert not a travel warning. “The latter are recommendations not to travel — what we have here is a general airing of unfocussed concern,” the organization that promotes inbound travel to Europe stated.
“What is missing here is any recognition of comparative safety,” Jenkins stated. “Europe is manifestly the safest region on earth.”