Health advice in Australian travel brochures

Abstract

[Extract] The question of who is to give travel health advice has received increased treatment over the last years. Sources of travel health advice and the quality of its content have been examined in many studies.1–5 Although health education is a domain of the health professions, the importance of at least acknowledging health as an issue in tourism and travel has been recognized by the tourism industry. There still seems to be a reluctance in the industry to deal with health threats arising from travel. One reason for this caution is the assumption that mentioning health issues may be counterproductive to business. However, the tourism industry has also recognized that it makes sense to ensure healthy travel. Healthy customers will book again. If that is not incentive enough, the potential for lawsuits is ever present if negligence,on the part of the operator, is found due to withholding crucial information or not pointing out the need for a professional pretravel health consultation.