Advice and Discontent

"What we find is that people have very different levels of risk tolerance," said Betsy Anderson, head of the department's office of Overseas Citizen Services, the corner of Foggy Bottom in charge of travel warnings. "Some people would like us to tell them what to do. But some don't appreciate the government giving them advice. They'd rather the government give them information and then they can make their own decision."

Anderson said Internet user surveys show that the traveling public, as opposed to vested tourism professionals, has given the system high marks. And even some pros admit that today's system is far superior to the heavily politicized notices common during the Cold War.

"Twenty years ago it was a much bigger headache," said Robert Whitley, president of the U.S. Tour Operators Association, an umbrella group for package tour companies. "Any incident in a country we didn't like would get huge play. A Marine would get into a fight in a Moscow bar and there would be a State Department advisory for the whole country. Now they are presenting the dangers in a more realistic and objective way."

The department offers travel information in three main forms: consular information sheets, public announcements and, rarest and most dire of all, travel warnings. Here's a primer on what they mean.

· Consular information sheets. These are lengthy, detailed portraits of every country in the world. They are reviewed for accuracy every six months and updated at least once a year.

Start here to learn that "Bhutan is a small land-locked Himalayan country led by a king, and is in transition to a constitutional monarchy." And that "Americans in New Caledonia requiring immediate emergency services should dial 17 for gendarmerie (police) or 15 for medical assistance." And that "Many U.S. citizens find the traffic in Senegal chaotic, particularly in Dakar."

You'll find visa requirements, embassy phone numbers and country-specific briefs about topics as varied as local adoption laws and mountain climbing. There are cautionary notes as well. That "Montevideo is facing a wave of petty street crime, which is largely non-violent" is good for the Uruguay-bound to know. More chilling is news that in Bolivia three years ago "an American citizen was murdered during an attempted carjacking in Santa Cruz."

Critics say this distillation of crime and mayhem creates an exaggerated sense of peril about some countries, many with lower crime rates than the United States'.

"They seem to throw in every little crime without much distinction of how likely it is a visitor will actually be affected," O'Neill said. "Even the one for France makes it seem like the most dangerous place in the world. They need some kind of rating system."

· Public announcements. These are temporary notices meant to let travelers know about "terrorist threats and other relatively short-term conditions that pose significant risks or disruptions to Americans."

This is where State told people to expect massive crowds in Germany during the recent World Cup, but also where it advises U.S. citizens to "avoid travel" altogether to Mexico's Oaxaca City, where a labor revolt has killed at least nine people in recent months.

According to Anderson, public announcements typically are prompted by a tip from the local U.S. embassy that is in turn vetted by several agencies in Washington.

When a threat is deemed to be credible, specific and unlikely to be controlled by local authorities, an announcement goes up. It is posted for a fixed period of time, which can be adjusted as conditions demand.

The current public announcement on the risk of violent demonstrations in Nicaragua is not slated to expire for five months. But Anderson says that might change, given the calmness that reigns there after the elections.

"Our reason for putting out the warning was the potential for demonstrations which, based on previous experience, could have turned violent," she said. "I'm sure we'll be reviewing it."

· Travel warnings. The State Department posts these warnings about the countries it considers the riskiest in the world. At press time there were 32 of them, including such no-brainers as Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and Haiti. Others are less obvious, including the Philippines (because of threats from radical insurgents and terrorists), Saudi Arabia (ditto) and Algeria (the same, in some rural areas).

The department's own explanation states flatly that "Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department recommends that Americans avoid a certain country." But open the individual links and you find a wider, more nuanced range of warnings, from "defer non-essential travel" (Pakistan) to "consider carefully" the risks of visiting (Kenya) to the almost mild entreaty that "reminds American citizens" of ongoing concerns (Colombia). In many cases, the seriousness of local conditions is made clear by notices that the State Department has gotten its own people out.

"We want to make sure we don't have double standards," Anderson said. "We would never have our embassy families leave a country without telling the general public."