1. CONSULAR SERVICES
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2. 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.
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3. Who reads it? 40m page views (Jan – Sept 2017).
1.39m subscribers.
answered around 10,000 s 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.
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4. Consular on Social media
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5. 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’
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6. 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
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7. Typical travel advice page
We have 1 member of staff in Cancun, which receives over 400,000 British visitors every year, mostly trouble free.
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8. Examples of maps - Lebanon
Map with insert to highlight boundaries in city areas
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9. 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
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10. 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)

11. 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
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12. Maps – How do we create them
Change to advisory – Advice to Ministers and approval
Cartographers – ‘Geo Innovations’
Website –
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
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13. 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
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14. What do they base changes on
Change to advisory – Advice to Ministers and approval
FCO briefing maps
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15. 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)
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16. 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.
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17. 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:
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