Provost Sylvie, Gaulin Colette, Piquet-Gauthier Blandine, Emmanuelli Julien, Venne Sylvie, Dion Réjean, Grenier Jean-Luc, Dessau Jean-Claude, Dubuc Martine
Direction de la santé publique des Laurentides, Saint-Jérôme, and Institute National de sant publique du Québec, Saint-Jérôme, Canada.
J Travel Med. 2002 Jan-Feb;9(1):3-9. doi: 10.2310/7060.2002.22494.
Among the factors influencing travelers to seek preventive health advice before departure, the travel agent's recommendation plays an important role. The objective of our study was to document the practices and needs of travel agents in Québec (Canada) in relation to the prevention of health problems among travelers.
In June 2000, a cross-sectional descriptive survey was carried out among travel agents from all travel agencies in Québec. One agent per agency was asked to answer our questions. Data were collected using a 32-item telephone questionnaire.
Altogether, 708 travel agents from the 948 agencies contacted answered our questionnaire (participation rate: 75%). Most respondents (81%) believed that the travel agent has a role to play in the prevention of health problems among travelers, especially to recommend that travelers consult a travel clinic before departure. Although over 80% of the agents interviewed mentioned recommending a visit to a travel clinic before an organized tour to Thailand or a backpacking trip in Mexico, less than half said they make the same recommendation for a stay in a seaside resort in Mexico. The majority of respondents were acquainted with the services offered in travel health clinics, and these clinics were the source of travel health information most often mentioned by travel agents. However, nearly 60% of the agents questioned had never personally consulted a travel clinic. When asked about the best way to receive information about travelers' health, more than 40% of respondents favoured receiving information newsletters from public health departments regularly whereas 28% preferred the Internet.
Despite the limits of this study, our results should help the public health network better target its interventions aimed to inform travel agents on prevention of health problems among travelers.
在影响旅行者在出发前寻求预防性健康建议的因素中，旅行社的推荐起着重要作用。我们研究的目的是记录加拿大魁北克省旅行社在预防旅行者健康问题方面的做法和需求。
2000年6月，对魁北克省所有旅行社的旅行社工作人员进行了一项横断面描述性调查。每个旅行社被要求一名工作人员回答我们的问题。通过一份包含32个条目的电话调查问卷收集数据。
总共，来自948家被联系旅行社的708名旅行社工作人员回答了我们的问卷（参与率：75%）。大多数受访者（81%）认为旅行社在预防旅行者健康问题方面可以发挥作用，特别是建议旅行者在出发前咨询旅行诊所。尽管超过80%的受访旅行社工作人员提到在组织前往泰国的旅行或在墨西哥进行背包旅行前推荐去旅行诊所，但不到一半的人表示在前往墨西哥海滨度假时也会给出同样的建议。大多数受访者了解旅行健康诊所提供的服务，这些诊所是旅行社最常提及的旅行健康信息来源。然而，近60%的被调查旅行社工作人员从未亲自咨询过旅行诊所。当被问及获取旅行者健康信息的最佳方式时，超过40%的受访者倾向于定期收到公共卫生部门的信息简报，而28%的人更喜欢互联网。
尽管本研究存在局限性，但我们的结果应有助于公共卫生网络更好地针对其干预措施，旨在告知旅行社预防旅行者健康问题的相关信息。
