An industry panel has been formed by the Australian Tourism Export Council to help develop the health and wellness travel sector in Australia and tap into the billion-dollar global health tourism industry. ATEC managing director, Matthew Hingerty said that there are a number of critical factors for both the tourism and health sectors, namely the ageing of Australia’s key tourism markets and domestic population and its entry into the rapidly-developing global health tourism market.

“A landmark report by Deloitte in The Economist has predicted that that outbound medical travel from the US alone will be worth US$162 billion by 2012,” Mr Hingerty said. “This does not include ‘soft health’ travel such as spa treatments and health checks.”

Mr Hingerty said that earlier this year KPMG demographer Bernard Salt presented ATEC with compelling evidence that Australia’s key tourism markets are ageing. He said that a ‘bubble’ of cashed-up baby boomers from the UK, US and even China would increasingly demand health services when they travel.

“It is critical that Australia understands and caters for these trends and like other countries, we need to recognise that our ageing domestic population and narrowing tax base will place increasing strain on our health system”, Mr Hingerty said.

Mr Hingerty said that Australian Governments had been slow to act on this developing trend to travel for health purposes. “Typically, New Zealand has stolen a march on us with their government backing private sector efforts to enter global travel markets. By contrast, Australian governments of both shades have been slow to realise the potential benefits and implications,” Mr Hingerty said.