The travel advisory is a segment of our protection effort. The advisories, formalized as a discretionary service to American Citizens in 1978, are intended to alert travellers to conditions which may adversely affect them overseas. The majority of the Department's travel advisories refer to temporary conditions unrelated to matters of physical safety. These include notifications of expected hotel room shortages; changes, in visa customs, and currency requirements; warnings about penalties for blackmarket or narcotics activities; dislocations caused by natural disasters and some health-related matters.

Of obviously greater concern to the American travelling public at this time are advisories which describe conditions of civil and political unrest, crime and actual warfare. There are relatively few of these advisories in effect at any time.

Security

trend or

Although five security-related advisories at this time counsel totally avoiding travel to a particular country, most such advisories inform Americans of the need for caution or for avoiding certain specific areas within a country. related advisories usually reflect an established pattern of violence not previously experienced in an area. For that reason, isolated international terrorist attacks can and do occur virtually anywhere at any time do not trigger travel advisories.

which

The exception would be a country whose government

consistently failed to provide reasonable security against such attacks, or when adequate security measures were not in place. In this connection, after the TWA 847 hijacking last June the Department promptly issued an advisory to let the travelling public know that the U.S. did not consider security at the Athens airport was adequate. When the government of Greece

installed additional security measures, the advisory was lifted.

the

Since then, Public Law 99-83 was enacted International Security and Development Act of 1985

mandates that the Secretary of State shall immediately issue a travel advisory when the Secretary of Transportation determines that, as a result of inadequate safety measures, conditions exist at a foreign airport which endanger the safety or security of passengers or crew.

Consultations are proceeding

with a number of foreign governments and to date it has not been necessary to issue a travel advisory pursuant to this

provision.

Individual travel advisories for specific countries are available to the public at any of the thirteen regional passport agencies, U.S. diplomatic and consular missions abroad, and from the Citizens Emergency Center in the Department of State.

The U.S. air raid on Libya and subsequent threats of terrorist retaliation against Americans have led to an unprecedented interest on the part of the American public in State Department travel advisories and the Department's view on safety of travel. The Department has consistently tried to take a non-alarmist approach to the question of travel safety overseas, pointing out that there are no security-related travel advisories for any of the European countries and that there is no general advisory against travel because of terrorist threats. In fact, in his recent testimony before the House Foreign Relations Committee's hearing on tourism and terrorism, Deputy Secretary Whitehead was asked if he considered it safe for Americans to travel to Europe. He responded: Yes,.... We believe it is safe if Americans use proper care and caution.

Nevertheless, the Citizens Emergency Center has been

flooded with calls from American citizens who want to know if it is safe to travel. Over the past three months, the Center has received over 500 calls a day. The questions for the most part focus on whether it is safe to travel to Europe and the Mediterranean, but spill over to any area where there have been reports of problems the most recent of course Chernobyl.

It

is clear, however, that setting aside natural disasters, the threat of terrorism appears to have produced a general caution among travelers.

Perhaps the greatest impact of terrorism will be on our

overseas operations. During the month of April, we have seen a significant increase in the number of applicants for non-immigrant visas (NIV) in some of the major European cities. London and Edinburgh have reported a 43 percent increase over April of 1985; Belfast an 89 percent increase. During the first four months of 1986, Bonn saw an average increase of 19 percent over the same period in 1985

ranging

from 2 percent in March to 34 percent in April. They expect this trend to continue into May with over 10,000 visas to be issued. Frankfurt has experienced a similar 20 to 25 percent increase, and for the first time in four years, issued over 10,000 NIV's during the month of April. Munich, Hamburg and Stuttgart are reporting increases echoing the two larger German posts.

Osaka-Kobe,

NIV issuance was also up 30 percent in Milan, Italy for the month of April 1986 as compared with April 1985. Japan is experiencing a similar increase in its workload.

Certainly, not all of this increase can be attributed

directly to the fear of terrorism.

In Japan, the strength of

the yen and attractive air fare packages are playing a major role. While there is no doubt that the present monetary

climate has fueled the NIV explosion in England and Germany, it cannot be ignored that the present uncertainty about travelling to the sunshine meccas on the Mediterranean has added to the

allure of American vacation spots. All signs point to the

present trend continuing.

This completes my testimony and I will be happy to answer

any questions.

Mr. MICA. Thank you, Ms. Clark.

Without objection from the subcommittee, I would like to bring up our other two witnesses as part of the panel and hear their testimony, then we will question all four.

Mr. Berens from Revere Travel and Cord D. Hansen-Sturm, vice president for Government Affairs, First Family of Travel, as I understand it, two of the largest-am I supposed to say the greatest travel agencies in the world-two of the largest travel agencies in the United States. Mr. Berens, with no prejudice, you may go first.

STATEMENT OF H. WAYNE BERENS, PRESIDENT, REVERE TRAVEL, INC., MEMBER AT LARGE, TRAVELERS SECURITY POLICY COUNCIL

Mr. BERENS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

My name is Wayne Berens and I am the founder and president of Revere Travel in Trenton, N.J., a unique $38 million travel agency founded in 1960. Revere Travel has been a member of the American Society of Travel Agents since 1971. As a member of ASTA's board of directors from 1978 to 1982, I have held various posts in ASTA, including chairman of the inbound tourism committee, and chairman of the education and training committee.

I currently serve as a member of the ASTA aviation and automation committee. Perhaps most relevant to this hearing, I am a member of the Travelers Security Policy Council, a group of travel industry officials formed by ASTA to address the issue of traveler safety.

I am also chairman of the Mercer County Airport Scheduled Services in Trenton, NJ, and a member of the board of directors of the Institute of Certified Travel Agents.

My remarks today are made while wearing my travel agent and ASTA hats, although I will also discuss the efforts of the Traveler Security Policy Council.

Travel agents are a good barometer of the current state of the travel industry, since anything that happens in one part of the industry affects our business. When terrorists hijacked the Achille Lauro, our cruise business was affected.

When an airplane or an airport is the target of terrorism, our airline ticket sales go down. Coping with the current situation is