US government warns about travel to two European countries | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

As the numbers of tourists from the U.S. to different cities in Europe continue to increase, many travelers are looking for alternative destinations to get away from crowds and vary what they’ve already seen.

According to statistics from Condor Airlines, Malta saw the biggest increase in tourist interest in 2024 with a 14% spike in international visitors who stay overnight.

Latvia followed with a 7.4% increase. Poland, Lithuania, and Finland are some of the other previously undervisited countries seeing increased tourist numbers.

With the four-tier travel advisories ranking system used to the evaluate how safe or dangerous a country is to visit compared to home, the U.S. State Department has just updated its travel advisories for Bulgaria and Croatia.

Both Eastern European nations remain at level one’s “exercise normal precautions.” Larger countries such as France, Germany, and Italy have level two’s “exercise increased precautions” due to the greater risk of terrorism in their capital cities.

“A decrease in crime”: State Department keeps two countries at lowest possible advisory level

“Most of Bulgaria experienced a decrease in crime,” the advisory for the country reads. “[…The] majority of incidents involving U.S. citizens are monetary in nature, though incidents of racism, ethnic slurs, and harassment of African Americans and religious minorities have occurred.”

The advisory for Croatia, in the meantime, draws attention to the fact that the rural regions of Karlovac and Lika-Senj could still have undiscovered landmines from the string of wars across the Balkan region in the 1990s.

As a result, these two regions are ranked slightly higher at “exercise increased precautions,” while both countries overall are assigned the lowest possible advisory level.

The State Department updates do not change the assigned ranking, but do tweak some language around the current situation and what tourists should know.

“Croatia is a member of the Schengen area,” the section addressing passport and visa requirements reads. “Land border controls between Croatia, Slovenia, and Hungary and the sea border with Italy ceased in 2023. The land borders with Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro continue to have police and customs checks in place, as these countries are outside of the Schengen area.”

Protests around Machu Picchu prompted the State Department to update its travel advisory for Peru.

Image source&colon; Shutterstock

Peru, Armenia, and the Maldives: other travel advisories tweaked recently

Over the last month, the State Department has similarly issued advisories for several different countries and regions.

The U.S. Embassy in Peru released an advisory about ongoing protests around the popular UNESCO site Machu Picchu in late September, and a separate advisory targeted the border area between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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At the start of October, the U.S. government also issued a travel advisory for the Asian island nation of the Maldives. Often associated with extreme luxury, the Maldives is kept at level two’s “exercise increased caution” over isolated incidents of terrorism that have occurred over the last decade.

“They may target tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets and shopping malls, [and] local government facilities,” the updated travel warning reads. “Attacks may occur on remote islands. This can lengthen the response time of authorities.”