Good morning. You're listening to Casey and Jim. It is 93 WIBC. It is spring break travel season. And we want to get some safety tips for you because you recall the story of the student who was traveling and went to Barcelona and ended up dead. You also recall the stories of the people that were in Mexico,

Acapulco, and the cartel battle took place. And joining us right now in the WIBC hotline from the

United States Department of State, we have the deputy spokesperson, Mignon Houston. Good morning,

Mignon. Thank you for joining us. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, let's talk about spring break travel safety tips to begin with. You have a program,

which is called the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. It's available for all travelers.

It's free. It takes just a few minutes. Means that embassies know where people are if something goes wrong.

So how many Americans are currently enrolled in step?

That's a great question.

And look, I just want to say how proud I am that you were giving this information to your listeners, that I remember traveling as a spring breaker and during summer travel and now as a

mom, as a diplomat, I would do things completely different. And so what we here at the State

Department want to make sure is that folks who are traveling, whether they are young or seasoned,

know exactly what they need to do to ensure they're safe, they're informed, and they're prepared.

As you mentioned, we have a smart traveler enrollment program. This is called Step, for short,

and essentially what this is that allows American citizens to enroll in step, provide your

email address. And in the event of a natural disaster, civil unrest in the country, the embassy or consulate can

reach out to you directly and provide you that alert information to let you know where you

should not be traveling, any news that you need. But there's also a second step, and that's just

reviewing travel.state.gov. It's a really important resource because it tells you before you

travel, vaccine

requirements, entry or exit visa requirements, tips from diplomats who live abroad, the level

of the advisory risk that we have for that country. If it's level four, do not travel, or level one,

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