Tourism may take hit from terror alert

MADRID — A rare advisory for US travelers to beware of potential terrorist threats in Europe drew shrugs yesterday from many Americans on the continent, but tourism officials worried that it could deter people from crossing the Atlantic.

The State Department alert advised the hundreds of thousands of US citizens in Europe to take more safety precautions. Security officials say terrorists may be plotting attacks in Europe with assault weapons on public places, similar to the deadly 2008 shooting spree in Mumbai.

Britain’s Foreign Office yesterday raised the terror threat level from “general’’ to “high’’ for British travelers to France and Germany. The British home secretary, Theresa May, said the threat of terrorism in the United Kingdom remains unchanged at “severe,’’ meaning an attack is highly probable.

The US travel alert said citizens “should take every precaution to be aware of their surroundings and to adopt appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling.’’ The alert isn’t intended to keep travelers away from public places, officials said.

While, the advisory is a step below a formal warning not to visit Europe, some analysts said it could still hurt a fragile European economy already hit hard by the debt crisis.

Without a specific threat, however, American visitors generally were not changing their travels.

“We live in New York. So in New York we think about these things all the time,’’ said Richard Mintzer, a 55-year-old American visiting Italy with his wife. “I wouldn’t say we are particularly worried in Rome, no more than we would be at home, or anywhere in the Western world.’’

At the spring-summer 2011 ready-to-wear fashion shows in Paris, W magazine fashion market director Karla Martinez said she gets “worried for five minutes, but then I forget about it and get back to the job that I’m here to do.

“It’s a little scary when you’re staying in a big hotel with lots of tourists, because we hear that could be a target, but I try not to get too worked up about it,’’ she said. “At the end of the day all you can do is keep your eyes and ears open and try not to be naive.’’