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Travellers be prepared: Downer
AAP
07mar02
WITH two Australians dying overseas each day, the government has urged the travel industry to help travellers avoid risk.

In Sydney launching a booklet on consular services, Assisting Australians Overseas, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said more than 20,000 Australians sought consular help each year while abroad.
"Every day of the year, on average, two Australians die overseas," according to the booklet.
The booklet said that it was not that travel was unsafe, "considering the number of Australians travelling at any given time, the proportion who die unexpectedly is actually very low."
However, each death overseas required a swift and compassionate response from consular staff.
Mr Downer said 3.5 million Australians, 20 per cent of the population, travelled overseas each year and their welfare was a "top priority" for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
In the last six months of 2001, the department assisted 12,000 Australians overseas, including 319 who had been arrested and 377 hospitalised. The department also helped the families of 311 travellers who had died, he said.
In outlining three key objectives, he urged the travel industry to assist government in keeping Australian travellers informed of risks overseas.
He asked young travellers in particular, to keep in contact with family and friends at home while travelling - the department received 2,000 missing persons reports each year - and stressed the need for travel insurance.
"The number of Australians encountering trouble overseas each year could be reduced if some travellers were better prepared.
"The government and the travel industry could be working together more to help ensure that Australians are well prepared," Mr Downer said.
He also launched today an online registration service where Australians living overseas, or travellers, could leave their details on a central website (www.dfat.gov.au/travel).
The department's 24-hour hotline received 89,000 calls in 2000/01.
Mr Downer said too many Australians failed to take out adequate travel insurance.
"Many simply don't insure themselves at all. We see far too many cases of Australian families (having to) mortgage their homes to cover the costs of hospital care or medical evacuation when this could have easily been avoided by travel insurance," he said.

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