Travel agencies to educate drunken British travellers
By Darren Cronian on Thursday, August 14th, 2008

A few years ago I was asked if I would like to be a partner of the ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign which was launched to educate the public of safe travel by the Foreign, Commonwealth Office. I am amazed to read today that they think holidaymakers should be told how to behave on holiday by travel agents.

Travel agencies to educate drunken British travellers

When the campaign was launched they asked partners to distribute leaflets through their communication channels, i.e. in high street travel agencies etc. The last two years they have done nothing, and it’s near impossible to contact anyone to give them your feedback.

Sit back and let me tell you a little story.

At the beginning of June, I contacted the Foreign, Commonwealth Office to ask them if they would help me produce a leaflet to distribute on the internet to educate people of safe travel. Initially, they were keen on it, but when it came to the time to get it off the ground, they never replied to any of my emails.

Basically, they ignored me and this is why I launched the safe travel week on Travel Rants.

All hell kicks off in destinations like Malia, and then the Foreign, Commonwealth Office have suddenly completed research which says that travel agencies should be responsible for providing advice. The Know Before you Go campaign is a typical government initiative which does not educate travellers.

It’s another example of the government wasting tax payers money.

They waste millions of pounds setting up this campaign, employ a so called PR agency to run the show, and do not deliver. It’s easier to blame someone else when the mud has been flung around and people are looking for who to blame.

On Tuesday night I was invited to an interview on BBC Radio 5 where I was asked who was to blame – my response was society, the resorts, but I put most of the blame on the Foreign, Commonwealth Office for sitting on their arses and not doing anything to educate travellers this summer.

Let me know what you think about any of the points raised.


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9 responses to “Travel agencies to educate drunken British travellers”

Kevin May | 15 August, 2008 at 8:17 am

there is deep mistrust of government and officials telling people what to do, so i doubt very much if travellers, especially the supposed binge drinkers, would be particularly interested in educational material produced by them, telling them how to behave on overseas.

to blame the government for not being proactive this summer and educating travellers, rather than trying to tackle the causes of brits appalling behaviour when it comes to drink, both overseas and at home, is a bit odd.

but i’m no sociologist. [just a criminologist!!]

Darren Cronian | 15 August, 2008 at 8:33 am

@ Kev

Point taken about would people listen to the government, but why use all that public money to create a long-term campaign for safe travel if you are not going to carry out the aims and objectives. God knows how much they have spent on this PR company to manage it.

That’s the point I am making that they have set an agenda to promote safe travel, they haven’t performed, so pass on the responsibility to the travel agent. If that’s the case then it needs to be scrapped and PR agency sacked too.

Nick | 15 August, 2008 at 9:27 am

Darren

Personal view, normal government response… it not our fault! Then find someone else to blame… aaahhh people getting drunk overseas… it the travel agent! It must be they send them there… people getting drunk here, it is the Pubs…etc etc.

Amazing get drunk here and it the pubs fault… get drunk overseas it the travel agent (not the pubs)… Getting drunk? Something someone chooses to do mostly isn’t it? But no under this government can never be there fault or the individual persons.

Nathan Midgley | 15 August, 2008 at 12:04 pm

Are they definitely not distributing the leaflets? On the KBYG page on the FCO site there are seven KBYG publications to download, though I don’t really have a sense of whether industry partners are carrying them.

There may be some confusion over branding - KBYG isn’t consumer-facing, it’s just an agreement between the FCO and trade partners to deliver certain materials. The materials themselves aren’t branded KBYG. That’s how it seems from their site anyhoo.

Sounds like they messed you about a bit, though, and clearly travel websites - inc blogs - are an important channel of distribution.

Beth | 15 August, 2008 at 2:21 pm

Interesting debate, but I think you’re missing something. I’ve seen the FCO KBYG crop up on a LOT of travel websites, and the goal is to point people back to the country-specific advice they offer (which you can get through email updates and is updated regularly when the situation warrants it). I think the FCO also uses this campaign to get travellers to register with the embassy.

Darren, you don’t mention either of these things… I’m curious to see how they fit into your thinking.

Karen Bryan | 15 August, 2008 at 9:40 pm

Darren, I couldn’t understand why the FCO, or their PR agency didn’t get the finger out to work with you on the Safety Leaflet. It was a good opportunity for them to get free publicity for the campaign through travel blogs.

At the same time each individual has to take responsibility for their own actions and it’s appalling the way some Brits behave abroad with their drunken antics, probably even worse than at home if alcohol is cheaper to buy and they’re on holiday and don’t have to get up for work next day.

Darren Cronian | 19 August, 2008 at 12:38 pm

@ Beth / Nathan / Kevin

It “was” the FCOs responsibiility to educate travellers - you may remember a few years ago they had ads on national television which was sending a message to tourists heading abroad.

They also worked with the industry in getting them to educate travellers. As a partner it was my responsibility to assist the FCO in educating and promoting safe travel. They kicked the campaign off well with distributing leaflets, tv ad campaigns, and even using the likes of You Tube to press home the issue.

So to answer your question YES, the KBYG campaign was launched so that the FCO and travel industry could work TOGETHER not to send literature to agencies and companies and get them to do all the legwork.

Darren Cronian | 19 August, 2008 at 12:39 pm

@ Karen

I completely agree that it’s up to the individual but people act in this way at home so why do we think that they will act any different abroad. Give people cheap/free drinks and some parts of society will just run riot.

James | 20 August, 2008 at 10:57 am

I can’t beleive that the travel agents are going to tell people what to do. Although i think some poeple do need to sort themselves out they will not listen to a travel agent telling them to behave themselves

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