Travel Advice Research Articles

Antecedents of Travel Advisories on Performance of the Hotel Industry in Kenya: A Case of Five-Star Hotels in Nairobi County

Purpose: The general objective of this study was to examine the antecedents of travel advisories on the performance of the hotel industry in Kenya by focusing on five-star hotels in Nairobi County. The specific objectives that guided the study were to examine the effect of political instability advisory, pandemic advisory and terrorism advisory on the performance of five-star hotels in Nairobi County. Methodology: The explanatory research design was employed in this study. The population of this study were the managers of five-star hotels in Nairobi County and were 426 in total. A stratified sample technique was employed in the study, while Simple Random Sampling (SRS) was used to select samples from each study stratum. The Yamane formula was applied is selecting 206 respondents who made the sample size of the study. The study used primary data that was gathered using self-administered and structured questionnaires. These questionnaires were pilot tested for reliability, and were distributed electronically for data collection. Descriptive and inferential analyses were applied during analysis and both tables and figures were used to display the findings. Findings: The results of the study showed that guest safety was a significant element for guests when choosing a destination to visit. Correlation analysis revealed that there existed a significant and negative statistical association between political instability advisory and hotel performance. The regression coefficients showed that a unit increase in political instability advisory provided resulted in a 37.7% decrease in performance of five-star hotels in Nairobi County. The outcome of the study indicated that hotels observed precipitous declines in occupancy rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. Correlation analysis showed that there existed a significant and negative statistical association between pandemic advisory and hotel performance. Regression coefficients indicated that a unit increase in pandemic advisory provided resulted in a 57.7% decrease in performance of five-star hotels in Nairobi County. The findings of the study revealed that a lack the resources had turned the attention of terrorists to target luxury hotels. Correlation analysis demonstrated that there existed a significant and negative statistical association between terrorism advisory and hotel performance. The study concludes that political incidents had a serious effect on the hotels’ performance compared to natural disasters since guest safety was a significant element when choosing a destination to visit. Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The study recommends the managers of five-star hotels in Nairobi County use available media both digital and traditional to provide factual information to their potential guests during times of political unrest. They need to create flexible corporate policies that would allow them to face new circumstances.

Knowledge, attitude and practices regarding travel medicine among health care workers in a tertiary care centre

Background: International travel whether for business, work or other reasons is increasing very rapidly. Along with this the risk for travel related illness has also increased exponentially as a very few travellers seek pre and post travel advice and our health care workers can play an important role in this field. To access the current knowledge, attitude, practice of travel medicine among health care workers. Methods: The participants were briefed about the purpose of the study prior to its commencement. The questionnaire was framed in 2 sections. Section I covered the demographic profile while section II pertained to knowledge, attitude and practice. The questions were developed focusing on the domains that were already used in similar published literature. A Google form link was sent to the participants and they were given a time span of 2 days to completely fill the Google Form. Results: Nearly all the participants had a fair knowledge regarding travel medicine (52.1%), associated diseases with it (68.6%) and the most common medicines to be prescribed during travel (65.3%). But (71.9%) were still unaware about the recommended guidelines related to travel medicine. A great number of participants (90%) were of the impression to create awareness among HCWs about presentation of illness in travellers. Most of the HCWs (72.7%) were aware of the issues that needed to be addressed in pre-travel consultation which could help to reduce the risk of illness and injury during travel. Most of HCWs (81%) were of the belief to encompass training related to travel medicine to be incorporated in medical curriculum. Conclusion: HCWs has fair knowledge and positive attitude and practices with more trainings in the form of workshops and CMEs on Travel Medicine.

Rwanda's first Marburg virus outbreak.

As of October 15, 2024, Rwanda’s Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) outbreak had caused 62 cases and 15 deaths (CFR 24.2%), with significant transmission among healthcare workers. The WHO and CDC issued warnings and travel advisories, emphasizing strict protocols. We discussed the local and global implications of such a situation here.

Nachhaltige Reiseberatung in der Arbeitsmedizin

Sustainable Travel Advice in Occupational Medicine Sustainable occupational health advice in travel medicine provides recommendations for maintaining health and avoiding illness. This avoids medical consultations in the host country, which also relieves the burden on the local healthcare system. The aspects of recyclability, resource conservation and waste avoidance are also taken into account.

Autochthonous and imported giardiasis cases: An analysis of two decades of national surveillance data, Germany, 2002 to 2021.

BackgroundGiardia duodenalis is a major cause of gastroenteritis globally, and is the most common food- and waterborne parasitic infection in Europe.AimTo describe the epidemiology of reported acute giardiasis cases in Germany and compare demographic and clinical characteristics between imported and autochthonous cases.MethodsWe conducted a descriptive analysis of giardiasis cases that fulfilled the national case definition and were reported between January 2002 and December 2021. We defined an imported case as having at least one place of exposure abroad in the 3-25 days before symptom onset. We analysed case numbers and incidence by age, sex, month reported and geographic region, both overall and stratified by autochthonous and imported cases.ResultsFrom 2002 to 2021, 72,318 giardiasis cases were reported in Germany, corresponding to a mean annual incidence of 4.4 per 100,000 population. Annual incidence gradually decreased since 2013, declining sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21. Of 69,345 cases reported between 2002 and 2019, 35% were imported. Incidence of autochthonous cases (overall yearly mean: 3.1/100,000) was highest in males and young children (< 5 years); imported cases were predominantly adults aged 20-39 years. We identified seasonal patterns for imported and autochthonous cases.ConclusionsGiardiasis in Germany is typically assumed to be imported. Our data, however, underline the importance of autochthonous giardiasis. Travel advice might reduce imported infections, but prevention strategies for autochthonous infections are less clear. Dietary, behavioural and environmental risk factors need to be further investigated to enhance infection prevention measures for autochthonous giardiasis.

Trends in imported infections among migrants and travellers to Spain: a decade of analysis through the +Redivi network (2012-2022).

High-speed global travel, increased trade, world population growth, migration, urbanization and climate change have favoured the emergence and spread of pathogens. We aimed to analyse the evolution of imported infections in Spain during 2012-2022 and the potential impact of some of the abovementioned factors on differential morbidity patterns. In this retrospective study (January 2012 to December 2022), we analysed data collected by the +Redivi network across 25 health centres. The network's standardised database records new cases of imported infections, including patient demographics, travel history, pre-travel advice and diagnostic information. To assess outcome rates over time and potential interactions, we constructed penalized weighted models to reduce the bias related to a low event rate and used weighted logistic regression for morbidity outcomes. We recorded 25 632 episodes, comprising 13 913 migrants, 4047 visiting friends and relatives (VFR) immigrants, 392 VFR travellers and 7280 travellers. Most immigrants came from South America (48.3%), Sub-Saharan Africa (28.5%), North Africa (6.6%), South Central Asia (5.4%) and Central America/Caribbean (5.3%). The most common regions visited by travellers were Sub-Saharan Africa (33.5%), South America (24.5%), Central America/Caribbean (13.5%), Southeast Asia (12%) and South Central Asia (10%). The proportion of diagnoses of malaria, strongyloidiasis and unspecified self-limiting febrile syndrome < 3weeks remained unchanged during the study period. An increased frequency of diagnosis was reported for schistosomiasis, blastocystosis, giardiasis, dengue, diarrhoea, new cases of HIV, latent and pulmonary tuberculosis, whereas a decrease was reported for syphilis, chikungunya fever, Chagas disease and eosinophilia. We detected interactions between time and sex or type of participant across the different diagnoses. Our study underscores the importance of epidemiological data in understanding infectious diseases dynamics among travellers and migrants, emphasizing how demographic shifts, migration trends and healthcare policies affect disease profiles. Comprehensive data play an essential role in enhancing public health policies and travel advice.

Advising the immunocompromised traveller: a review of immunocompromise at The London Hospital for Tropical Diseases Travel Clinic between 1st April 2019 and 30th April 2020.

Immunocompromised travellers (ICTs) face greater infectious and non-infectious travel-associated risks than their immunocompetent counterparts. Increasing travel and emergence of novel immunosuppressants poses great challenges for travel medicine practitioners to confidently provide up-to-date evidence-based risk management advice and pre-travel care for ICTs. We reviewed the records of ICTs attending the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases (HTD) Travel Clinic between 1st April 2019 and 30th April 2020 with the aim to describe demographic and travel characteristics, type, and severity of immunocompromise, the degree of risk associated with intended travel and evaluate travel advice. Of the 193 ICTs identified, immunocompromise was due to physiological reasons (42%), chronic infection (17.1%) and immunosuppressive therapy (16.6%). Median age was 38 (range 9 months to 84 years) and male to female ratio 0.75 (83:110). Travel was intended to 80 countries for a median of 16 days (range 2 to 3167), predominantly for leisure (53%), non-medical work (17%) and visiting friends and relatives (12%). Live vaccine safety dominated discussion in the pre-travel consultation. Existing guidelines arguably fell short in dealing with travel risks associated with hyper-specific conditions, targeted immunosuppressants and non-vaccine preventable infections. Our cohort represents a wide spectrum of immunocompromise, for whom we arguably need more measurable ways to approach travel-associated risks. We propose prospective qualitative participatory research to inform our unit of the priorities of ICTs in the pre-travel consultation. We further recommend the formation of a repository of specialists and formulary of complex cases to direct subsequent informative systematic review and prospective risk studies.

Preparing your patient to travel the globe.

Many patients who travel internationally seek medical travel advice from their primary care provider, who may feel unprepared to provide this advice. This article describes online travel medicine resources and a structured approach to a basic pretravel assessment, office evaluation, and destination-specific consultation on travel health and safety.

Expressway traffic flow prediction based on MF-TAN and STSA.

Highly accurate traffic flow prediction is essential for effectively managing traffic congestion, providing real-time travel advice, and reducing travel costs. However, traditional traffic flow prediction models often fail to fully consider the correlation and periodicity among traffic state data and rely on static network topology graphs. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a expressway traffic flow prediction model based on multi-feature spatial-temporal adaptive periodic fused graph convolutional network (MFSTAPFGCN). First, we make fine preprocessing of the raw data to construct a complete and accurate dataset. Second, by deeply investigating the correlation properties among section speed, traffic flow, and section saturation rate, we incorporate these features into a multi-feature temporal attention mechanism in order to dynamically model the correlation of traffic flow in different time periods. Next, we adopt a spatial-temporal adaptive fusion graph convolutional network to capture the daily cycle similarity and potential spatial-temporal dependence of traffic flow data. Finally, the superiority of the proposed MFSTAPFGCN model over the traditional baseline model is verified through comparative experiments on real Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) gantry transaction data, and the effectiveness of each module is demonstrated through ablation experiments.

Tediousness in Coryats Crudities (1611): early modern travel writing, rhetoric, and notions of canonicity

ABSTRACT Despite its increasing prominence in university syllabi and anthologies, travel writing continues to be excluded from the canon of early modern literature. Its exclusion can be attributed to the view, articulated explicitly and implicitly, that its formal and stylistic conventions render it insufficiently ‘literary’. Such assessments reveal a tendency to read early modern travel accounts using aesthetic criteria that are anachronistic, disconnected from the discursive contexts in which these accounts were originally written and read. This article examines one of the genre’s most distinctive features, one which has shaped its relationship to notions of literary value and canonicity: its preoccupation with particulars, something early modern and modern readers alike characterise as ‘tedious’. Focusing on Thomas Coryate’s eponymous Coryats Crudities (1611), it situates the particularity of early modern travel writing within the reconstructed contexts of classical rhetoric, early modern poetics, and travel advice, placing special emphasis on the rhetorical quality of enargeia, or vividness. In addition to offering a fresh assessment of the Crudities and modelling a new approach to the study of travel writing more generally, the article reflects on how we can expand our sense of what early modern literature might be said to comprise.

Incidence and risk factors for travellers' diarrhoea among short-term international adult travellers from high-income countries: a systematic review with meta-analysis of cohort studies.

Travellers' Diarrhoea (TD) continues to be the most common travel-related medical event in international travellers. Updated incidence and risk factor data will improve pre-travel medical advice for travellers from high-income countries (HIC), providing an opportunity for disease prevention, and appropriate disease management. A systematic search for cohort studies of TD incidence published between 1 January 1997 and 2 March 2023 was performed using Ovid Medline, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar databases. Study quality was assessed with a modified Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS). We extracted incidence data for adults travelling less than 100days from HIC and available risk factor data. The overall random-effects pooled incidence and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 statistic, tau and the 95% prediction intervals. Subgroup analyses were conducted to identify sources of heterogeneity. Risk factor studies were reviewed qualitatively and described. Ten studies were included in the meta-analysis, containing 8478 participants. Two of the studies measured as high quality and eight as good quality as assessed by the modified NOS. The TD incidence was 36.1% (95% CI 24-41%; I2 94%), with a prediction interval ranging from 20.3% to 55.8%. The pooled incidence of mild, moderate, and severe TD was 23.6%, 8.1% and 2.9%, respectively. Subgroup analysis showed that the incidence increased with increasing average data collection period. Risk factors for TD in travellers from HIC identified include younger age, longer travel periods, low and middle-income destinations, travelling for tourism, backpacking travel styles and pre-travel health status. It is estimated that between 20 to 56% of international travellers can expect to develop TD in travel of under 100days. While most cases are mild, approximately 3% of all travellers will experience a disease that prevents usual activities or requires medical attention.

The evolving role of Australian community pharmacists in vaccination: challenges and opportunities

Community pharmacists in Australia are increasingly at the forefront of public healthcare, expanding their scope of practice since first providing immunisation services in 2014. This article examines the evolving role of pharmacists, highlighting their significant contributions to vaccination efforts. Despite their growing impact, pharmacists face complexities due to varying regulatory frameworks and scope of practice across Australian jurisdictions. These challenges affect service consistency and consumer experience. Opportunities for community pharmacies to enhance and strengthen their care of communities remain, including initiatives like the National Immunisation Program Vaccinations in Pharmacy (NIPVIP), which enhances vaccine accessibility and affordability and travel advice and vaccination. Community pharmacists also play a critical role in public health promotion, opportunistic immunisation and support when disease outbreaks occur. To maximise their value, the healthcare system must address regulatory inconsistencies and promote multidisciplinary collaboration. By overcoming these barriers, community pharmacies can continue to provide accessible, high-quality care, reinforcing their essential role in public health and vaccination services.

Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) Caused by Group A Streptococcus: Novel Insights Within the Context of a Familiar Clinical Syndrome.

The emergence of invasive infections attributed to group A Streptococcus (GAS) infections, has resurged since the 1980s. The recent surge in reports of toxic shock syndrome due to GAS in Japan in 2024, while sensationalized in the media, does not represent a novel infectious disease per se, as its diagnosis, treatment, and prevention are already well-established. However, due to signs of increasing incidence since 2011, further research is needed. Health authorities in neighboring countries like The Republic of Korea should not only issue travel advisories but also establish meticulous surveillance systems and initiate epidemiological studies on the genotypic variations of this disease while awaiting various epidemiological research findings from Japan.

Adapting social media strategies: a comparative analysis of Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Emirates before, during, and after the COVID-19 Pandemic

In recent years, the aviation industry has transformed significantly, driven by the increasing importance of digital technologies and social media for communication and marketing. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this transformation, posing unprecedented challenges to airlines. The present study investigates how Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Emirates adapted their social media strategies before, during, and after the pandemic. The research has a threefold focus: (i) assessing pre-pandemic social media strategies, (ii) examining strategy evolution during the pandemic, and (iii) comparing the effectiveness of these strategies before and after COVID-19. By exploring how these airlines leveraged social media to navigate pandemic-related disruptions and maintain vital connections with passengers, this study provides valuable insights. These findings hold significant implications for aviation stakeholders, marketing professionals, and researchers, shedding light on the evolving role of social media in crisis communication and marketing. The study uncovered interesting changes in how airlines use Twitter. After the pandemic, they started using more emojis, and their messages shifted from promoting services to expressing hope during the pandemic and back to promotions afterward. They played with visuals and hashtags. Pricing-wise, they offered discounts for students, different ticket options, and bundled services. In promotions, they focused on being environmentally and socially responsible, user convenience, and specific events. They mainly shared updates on flights, achievements, and travel advice. To engage people, they used quizzes, replied directly to customers, and targeted specific groups. For marketing managers, the study suggests being more customer-focused, emphasizing environmental and social responsibility, offering diverse pricing, celebrating milestones, and creating engaging content. Overall, the findings provide practical insights for adjusting marketing strategies in the ever-changing world of airlines, especially considering the challenges brought by COVID-19.

(M)apping film in Scotland: Film tour maps, apps and ‘real’ engagements with virtual place

This article presents an analysis of film tour apps and maps, exploring the different functionalities they offer, how these functionalities contribute to shaping engagements with place in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the specific role of film in this process. We find that while they possess similar functionalities to more general tourism apps – for example, providing information and offering travel advice – film tour apps and maps also connect the real world to the ‘reel’ world through games, active engagement, and prosumerism. The specific functionalities of film media apps, we argue, have ramifications for film tourism experiences, potentially extending the touristic experience of a destination to a multi-mediated, multi-layered experience of a ‘patchwork’ place through the lens of film. Additionally, functionalities of film tour apps facilitate new types of behaviours and interactions with place.

The pregnant traveller: An overview of general travel advice.

Travel during pregnancy is common, but is associated with a number of risks and potential problems. There are many pregnancy-specific and destination-specific issues to be considered along with issues related to method of transport. Travel experiences should be made as safe as possible through evidence-based counselling via pregnancy healthcare providers prior to travel. This travelling in pregnancy article has been created to facilitate pregnancy healthcare providers in having these pre-travel discussions to optimise maternal and fetal wellbeing.

Impact of Severe Weather on Operations of a Radiation Oncology Department

In 2022, two major storms in Western New York brought blizzard conditions and historic snowfall amounts to the region. Beyond the immediate impact to life and property, these weather events resulted in disruptions to cancer care as a result of hazardous travel conditions, and facility closures as a result of regional travel bans. We sought to understand the impact of these disruptive incidents on departmental operations to develop better contingency plans for future occurrences. The radiation treatment machine schedules for a large academic center in Western New York, as well as a neighboring affiliated satellite clinic were queried for daily treatment adherence rates from November 1, 2022 through February 4, 2023. We classified "severe weather days" based on travel advisories issued by the National Weather Service or from local county officials. Out of a total of 68 working days during the study period, 15 days were classified as having severe weather. We compared the percentage of scheduled patients treated (adherence rates) on severe weather days compared with days without severe weather. Statistical analysis was performed using a two-tailed Z-test for proportions. Under routine operating conditions, out of a total of 7045 scheduled treatment visits, we found a mean daily treatment adherence rate of 93.57%. On severe weather days, out of a total of 2093 scheduled treatments, we found a mean daily treatment adherence rate of 77.83%. Out of these 15 days, the satellite clinic closed for a total of 3 days, while the academic center closed for 1 day. Excluding the dates of facility closure, overall treatment adherence rate was 84.76% on severe weather days (Risk Ratio: 0.91). We found that the difference in treatment adherence rates between regular and severe weather days was statistically significant (p<0.001), even when excluding dates of facility closure. This study demonstrates a significant reduction in treatment adherence rates around severe winter storms, even when excluding dates of facility closure. We suggest that preparation for such incidents be a part of facility contingency planning. Weekend openings can be considered for closures ≥ 2 days, or sustained adherence rates of 85% or less for 3 or more days.

A Risk-Informed Decision-Support Framework for Optimal Operation of Hurricane-Impacted Transportation Networks

To reduce life threats and financial losses under hurricane weather and traffic conditions, stakeholders need to make a sequence of decisions (e.g., enforcing traffic control and/or broadcasting travel advisory) with the presence of various uncertainties, which could be formulated as a Markov decision process (MDP). To effectively solve the MDP for optimal operation of hurricane-impacted transportation networks, a risk-informed decision-support framework is proposed consisting of both a decision-making environment and tool. The decision-making environment involves essentially three coupled modules of hurricane hazard, transportation infrastructure, and traffic flow, where the uncertainties from natural environment, built environment, and human behavior are examined. Specifically, multiple correlated hazards for each specific storm are capsulated in the hurricane hazard module, representative hurricane-vulnerable infrastructure components and associated moving vehicles are evaluated in the transportation infrastructure module, and network-level traffic relations are addressed in the traffic flow module. In view of the complexity and intractability of a hurricane-transportation infrastructure-traffic system through full model representation, the efficient low-dimensional modeling approaches including both physics-based analytical and data-driven surrogate models are utilized in all these three simulation modules. Considering an explicit probabilistic model for the decision-making environment (and hence state transition function) is not available, the operation optimization (involving competing objectives of traffic safety and mobility) is accomplished through a deep reinforcement learning-based decision-making tool that learns to act optimally (involving both traffic control and travel advisory actions) by directly interacting with the environment. A hypothetical case study is conducted to verify the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed framework as a testbed for optimal operation of hurricane-impacted transportation networks.

Marburg virus disease: lesson learned from the first outbreak encounter in Tanzania

Marburg virus disease: lesson learned from the first outbreak encounter in Tanzania

Unpacking Foreign Fighting: New Zealand’s Legislative Responses to Transnational Combatants

Is it lawful for New Zealanders to travel overseas to participate in a foreign conflict? Political statements and travel advisories have discouraged the private participation of New Zealanders in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. Yet, prohibitions in New Zealand’s law are currently restricted to criminal offences related to the ‘mercenary’ and the ‘foreign terrorist fighter’. Foreign fighting or foreign incursion conceived more broadly are not specifically prohibited. At first glance, the chosen mercenary-terrorist binary appears unreflective, leaving unhelpfully unpacked any broader phenomena of transnational combatants who might not be fighting with designated terrorist entities or for financial gain as mercenaries – such as volunteers fighting in Ukraine or with Kurdish forces in Syria. This article brings together the various areas of law that address these questions, providing a historical account of how the law has evolved over time. It reveals how New Zealand’s discourse in key moments of legislative debate has in fact continually preserved space for certain types of private involvement in transnational armed violence. The article suggests, therefore, that the unpacking still required is not necessarily that of seeking better understanding of transnational participation in war and its policy considerations, but rather further consideration of the values and assumptions underlying the permissive legal positions taken in the first place.