Results from the national Travel Industry Health Survey released today show that 80 percent of travel industry and tourism professionals could be preventing their customer’s holidays from going down the loo, with better knowledge on travel advice.

Of the 111 Australians working in the travel and tourism industry surveyed for their knowledge and opinions, most offered health advice to their customers, however only 39 per cent were aware of how to reduce the risks of travellers’ diarrhoea (TD).

TD is the highest reported illness in international travellers, with up to 60 per cent of people travelling to less-developed countries such as Africa, South and South-East Asia, South and Central America and the Middle East, experiencing the unpleasant and embarrassing illness.

A majority (73 per cent) of the travel professionals surveyed said they would recommend preventative medication if they knew more about it.

According to Professor Roy Robins-Browne, head of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, the golden rule for preventing TD is to ‘boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it’.

However travellers wishing to reduce the risk of TD before symptoms appear should look at the natural product Travelan.  Derived from Australian dairy cows, the capsules have shown a 90 per cent success rate in clinical trials.