Government beefs up travel advice services
Swiss tourists will now have the option of being notified by government text message if the security situation in the country they are visiting changes, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
A new online platform, dubbed Itineris, will enable tourists travelling abroad to register their personal data and itinerary with the foreign ministry in a move which the government hopes will make searches for missing persons easier.
Also new, and in response to a spike in the number of inquiries from people worried about travelling to Greece or to Britain for the Olympic Games next month, the foreign ministry also announced that it would now publish travel advice for western Europe.
So far, the foreign ministry has added Spain, Portugal, Greece and Britain to its travel advisories list, and will add more western European countries at a later date.
The ministry also plans to release a travel advice smartphone app and since the beginning of this year has been updating travellers on social networking website Twitter.
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