STEP program notice re: France

Thanks for sharing the information. I thought that France was at Level 2 since November 2015. I guess it was not. But, France is not alone. A bunch of travel alerts were issue on January 10th and many countries in Europe (UK, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Spain, for example) are in Level 2 right now.

While not traveling into France, I just received a similar alert for Italy which already was at 'security level two' earlier this week.

Plus, I'm not scheduled to travel to Italy this year. I did sign onto STEP last year, which possibly is what generated this email.

I'm guessing it's some automated email which doesn't actually reflect any change in the security of France or Italy.

I received an email from them today regarding Germany.

I some how doubt that there are increases in the security levels in all of these countries all at the same time. I think it much more likely that it's because of the new ranking system that was just implemented. New system : blanket notifications to everyone.

Here's a story about the new security ranking system: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/travel/new-state-department-travel-advisories.html?hpw&rref=travel&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
It may be behind a paywall. It apparently is replacing the warning and alerts system.
I believe Italy and France are both Level 2. I don't really pay attention to such a ranking system, although if some place I was considering going was a Level 4, I might think twice.

Now I see there is an article (the same NYT one) in the Travel News. As stated above, it is not an alert, just an announcement of a new ranking system. Level 2 seems to be pretty consistent across Europe, although the article mentions Portugal gets a "1". ( I would expect Norway and Switzerland to be there too, but did not check).

Canada, Vietnam, and Cambodia also get "1".

Who would have thought Vietnam would be deemed safer for tourists than most of Europe?