On perpetual alert

When England8217;s cricketers are agreeably back in India to try to win a Test, is it any surprise that travel advisories issued in the wake of the Mumbai attack have already been toned down?

When England8217;s cricketers are agreeably back in India to try to win a Test, is it any surprise that travel advisories issued in the wake of the Mumbai attack have already been toned down? Even as last month8217;s Mumbai attack was on, many governments had cautioned their citizens visiting Mumbai. The new US advisory, for instance, simply warns Americans to be vigilant, to avoid calling attention to their nationality, and to expect enhanced security checks at Indian airports. Canada and the Netherlands have, in contrast, completely withdrawn their warning for their citizens headed to Mumbai.

Travel advisories are alerts issued by governments to their citizens on precautions to be undertaken abroad; these could relate to security, weather, disease, etc. In the tenor and tenacity with which they are issued, they are a little-noticed but very influential determinant in visits, especially non-essential, to particular destinations. During

Operation Parakram in 2001-02, for instance, India had amassed troops on the Pakistan border in what proved to be a successful but fraught bout of coercive diplomacy. Resultant tension invited a flurry of stern travel advisories, and ultimately moved industry to plead for normalisation, else business-related essential travel to India would be severely affected. This year, therefore, there is apprehension that along with the financial crisis, the Mumbai attack could lose India 10-15 per cent of its expected tourist arrivals.

But the diplomacy surrounding travel advisories is important for more reasons than tourist footfall. Advisories are a reflection not just of how the world perceives a destination. In the way, they also reflect how the subjects of the advisories portray themselves. Terrorism is a clear and present threat around the world, not just in India. And responsive governments everywhere have been on above-average levels of alerts at least since the

September 11, 2001, attacks in the US. Airport security has been particularly tight everywhere. To be a traveller these days is to be alert. It is welcome, therefore, that New Delhi takes very seriously the wording of advisories by foreign agencies, scoping out the terrain between realistic alerts and reflexive alarmism.