CONSULAR SERVICES OFFICIAL

Purpose of FCO Travel Advice Give British nationals information and advice to help them make their own informed decisions about travel to a particular place. OFFICIAL

Who reads it? 40m page views (Jan – Sept 2017). 1.39m email subscribers. answered around 10,000 emails in 2015/16. promote our travel advice on social media answer questions on twitter and facebook 84,400 twitter followers 53,500 facebook page likes. We have 1 member of staff in Cancun, which receives over 400,000 British visitors every year, mostly trouble free. OFFICIAL

Consular on Social media OFFICIAL

Purpose of maps Green – ‘Check the advice before travelling’ To indicate our advisories and display them in image form Green – ‘Check the advice before travelling’ Amber – ‘FCO advises against all but essential travel’ Red – FCO ‘advises against all travel’ OFFICIAL

Purpose of maps Helps clarify to the reader areas affected Encourages responsibility to take decisions to travel Helps us fend of large volumes of queries from the public Helps clarify advice in insurance policies OFFICIAL

Typical travel advice page We have 1 member of staff in Cancun, which receives over 400,000 British visitors every year, mostly trouble free. OFFICIAL

Examples of maps - Lebanon Map with insert to highlight boundaries in city areas OFFICIAL

Examples of maps - Colombia Large areas downgraded over last 3 years Cities where we ‘advise against all travel’ (Red) Cities designated ‘green’ in areas where we advise against all but essential travel (amber) Green ‘Corridor’ in area where we advise against all but essential travel OFFICIAL

Examples of maps - Colombia 4. Amber (Small border area) 3. Green (in areas where we advise against all but essential travel) 1. Red (Advise against all travel) 2. ‘Corridor’ Green (explained in text)

Colombia – Text explanation The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all travel to: the port of Buenaventura in the department of Valle de Cauca the port of Tumaco in the department of Nariño The FCO advise against all but essential travel to: the department of Cauca (except its capital Popayán and the road between the tourist site of the San Agustin ruins in Huila and Popayán city) the departments of Putumayo, Arauca, Caquetá, Guaviare, Guainía, Vichada, and Norte de Santander (except their capital cities, as indicated on the map) – the department of Meta (except its capital Villavicencio, and the tourist site of Caño Cristales); visitors travelling to Caño Cristales should only do so with a reputable tour company travelling by air to and from the town of La Macarena within 5km of the Venezuelan border in the departments of La Guajira, César and Boyaca 1 2 3 4 OFFICIAL

Maps – How do we create them Change to advisory – Advice to Ministers and approval Cartographers – ‘Geo Innovations’ Website – www.geoinnovations.co.uk Process maps quickly for us – important when urgent decisions need to be made Cost – Changes - £45 – major / £25 / minor Cost – New Map - £85 Cost effective OFFICIAL

Countries with no maps India / Pakistan (bi-lateral sensitivities) No map would satisfy both parties on the line of control in Kashmir Media attention UK role in partition still sensitive issue Israel / OPT’s (recent map added) Borders with Syria, Lebanon & disputed territories OFFICIAL

What do they base changes on Change to advisory – Advice to Ministers and approval FCO briefing maps OFFICIAL

Structure Use of static format (not Google Maps) Terms may not align politically Naming Convention – Permanent Committee on Geographical names Google Maps – Las Malvinas (not Falklands) OFFICIAL

Technical Process & Software raw geographical information  (GIS data) maintained in Manifold GIS select elements are relevant to the subject required and exported into mid/mif  files. imported into Adobe Illustrator via the MAPublisher plugin and styled accordingly.  for relief Images, we take our DEM data into Global Mapper to colour and re-project. to create FCO base maps, create additional images for Highlight and Shadow areas which are then combined in Adobe Photoshop to produce the final background image. OFFICIAL

Permanent Committee on Geographical Names Based at the Royal Geographical Society Advises government on policies for the proper writing of geographical names for places and features outside of the UK Website: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/the-permanent-committee-on-geographical-names OFFICIAL