This week the U.S. Embassy in Manila confirmed that there are “increasingly positive signs” that countries across Asia, including Russia, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and India are turning back to the U.S. after months of travel advisory alerts were issued.
From the embassy’s statement:
The U.S. Government is working to increase travel opportunities for U.S. citizens, but many of the travel alerts for countries across the world are unrelated to health, safety, or security issues and focus solely on the conditions in particular countries. In the past few months, the U.S. Embassy in Manila has received information that offers encouragement, and travel advice for U.S. citizens wishing to visit a country without the travel alert or travel warning in place. At this time, the U.S. Embassy has approved previously issued travel warnings for Burma and North Korea, and is working closely with the Governments of Thailand and Vietnam. The majority of the countries whose travel warnings have been canceled or allowed to lapse are those impacted by the power outage and typhoon that occurred in late October and early November, respectively. The remaining alerts are for additional countries with deteriorating security conditions.
In other news, O’Hare International Airport is now ranked first in the U.S. in terms of passenger boardings, an indicator used to determine the airport’s success.