Ruining our holidays or saving our skin? Decoding Australia's Smartraveller warnings

It takes years to plan a dream holiday, but just seconds for a government update to completely ruin it.

For millions of Australians, Smartraveller is the ultimate oracle of overseas safety. Managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) across 179 destinations, its four-tier, colour-coded system does a lot more than just offer friendly advice.

It also dictates whether travel insurers will cover you. Go to a Level 4 "Do Not Travel" zone, and you're entirely on your own.

In the last financial year alone, DFAT quietly dropped a staggering 1148 travel advice updates. But as global conflict reshapes traditional tourist hotspots overnight, it's worth knowing where Smartraveller warnings come from - and how they keep us safe.

DFAT's updates offer general advice to assist Australians to make informed decisions about their safety and security when overseas.

There are four travel advice levels: Level 1 - Exercise normal safety precautions (Green); Level 2 - Exercise a high degree of caution (Yellow); Level 3 - Reconsider your need to travel (Orange); and Level 4 - Do not travel (Red).

The advisories are reviewed annually or biannually as part of a scheduled review process, and ad hoc travel advice is published for any new and significant information.

Each advisory has information about safety, health, local laws, travel and local contacts, and DFAT draws on a range of sources. These include Australian diplomatic missions overseas, threat assessments from ASIO's National Threat Assessment Centre, intelligence reporting, and information from consular partners in other countries. Media reports and feedback from travellers are also taken into account.

Travellers are possibly paying more attention to travel ratings right now than ever before, says Daniel Gschwind, professor of practice at the Griffith Institute for Tourism.

"Given the current level of global safety and security concerns, travel ratings are likely to be taken more seriously by Australian travellers," he tells Explore.

"Particularly the situation in the Middle East, until recently considered extremely safe destinations and transit ports for tourists, an increased risk-awareness has emerged for many people considering an overseas trip."

But communicating risks and potential threats in a manner that is easily interpreted by the general public is not an easy task.

For instance, this is the current advice for France: "Exercise a high degree of caution in France due to the threat of terrorism".

"What conclusion should a would-be traveller draw from that? There are usually additional explanatory notes provided, however, most people would be left with a high degree of uncertainty about how to adjust their travel plans," Gschwind says.

"It is reasonable to assume that governments also issue travel warning to avoid potential future accusations of not providing adequate information if something does go wrong."

So should travellers pay attention to this advice? It's a hard yes from Gschwind.

One of the challenges setting travel advisories is they may naturally lag the events that influence their shape, says Joseph Cheer, professor of sustainable tourism and heritage at Western Sydney University.

"For example, in the case of social and political upheaval in the destination, advisories come out in response to an event not necessarily in advance of it," he tells Explore.

Cheer continues: "If the lag is too wide between the occurrence of an event and the release of the travel advisory, this could be futile because the risk factors may no longer be prominent."

Travel advisories can also be too heavily influenced by popular media commentary, and "not the actuality of what is going on the ground", Cheer says.

Subscribe to Smartraveller travel advice or check the advice level for your next destination at smartraveller.gov.au