Despite Friday's massacre, Tunisia could remain a popular destination for many Irish tourists - but how safe is travel to the African nation, and what advice are the government offering to travellers?

For Irish tourists considering travelling to Tunisia “it’s a matter of making a decision against the background of available information and advice,” Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, has told The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.

Mr Flanagan was speaking as the government’s warning level for travel to Tunisia remains at ‘exercise extreme caution’ after 38 people were killed on Friday, up from the previous level, ‘exercise caution’.

The current level is the middle tier of the five tier warning system, still some way off the ‘Do not travel’ red alert level of countries such as Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and Syria, where the level of threat makes any travel inadvisable. 

“The authorities in Tunis have said that that incident is over, it’s passed. I think it’s important that people would exercise extreme caution before travelling,” Mr Flanagan said.

However, with the one-year anniversary of the Islamic State announcing itself as a caliphate to come tomorrow, June 30, there are increased concerns of further attacks across the Islamic World.

The government assessment of the threat level, and its advice to Irish travellers, takes in several factors. 

“There are a number of issues involved,” Mr Flanagan said, including the insurance situation, with  government travel advice potentially having a knock on effect for the validity of travel insurance policies.

“Obviously there is a very active insurance situation ... if the government advised people not to travel and people defied that advice then it places them in a position of some doubt in validity of their policies.”