Canada has recently changed the travel advisory for Canadian citizens travelling to St. Maarten/ St. Martin from exercise normal security precautions to now exercise a high degree of security precaution. This puts the island in the same category as many high risk travel countries. This is very concerning to me as this island has never been on the travel advisory previously in this manner. Recent crime and safety of travellers has been cited as the reasons. Avoid all non essential travel is the next step in this advisory and I really hope the island gets things in order to avoid that!