, Chicago, IL, USA). The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and chi-square test. Overall, 2,560 questionnaires were collected, 65 were incomplete and not included in our study. So, 2,495 (97.5%) questionnaires were included; the 3-MA mw five international airports each contributed between 391 and 629 questionnaires. The travelers had destinations in 80 countries, including 39 malaria endemic countries. All respondents were Chinese nationals with a male/female ratio of 1.55:1, of whom 2,274 (91.1%) could

access the Internet without difficulty (Table 1). Among 2,495 respondents, 1,036 (41.5%) were on their first trip and 1,459 (58.5%) had previously been abroad. The purposes of travel were tourism/holiday for 48.7%, business/work abroad for 24.9%, visit to family/friends for 10.6%, research/education for

9.8%, missionary/religious/volunteer accounted for 1.3%, and other for 4.7%. Most travelers were accompanied by a partner, their spouse, friends, colleagues, children, or other team members, while 26.7% traveled alone. While 2,069 (82.9%) travelers declared that they would stay in cities, 121 travelers (4.8%) would travel in rural areas. Among the 527 (21.1%) who intended to backpack, 285 (54.1%) were on their MG 132 first trip. High and low malaria risk destinations were visited by 1,573 (63.0%) travelers, risk-free countries by 922 (37.0%) travelers. Table 2 describes duration of stay in various risk areas. In the malaria risk group, 833 (53.0%) travelers spent less than 1 week to prepare their trip, 395 (25.1%) spent 1–2 weeks, RANTES 196 (12.5%) spent between 2 weeks to 1 month, 65 (4.1%) spent between 1–2 months, and 84 (5.3%) spent longer than 2 months; in the control group the numbers and proportions were 415 (45.0%), 189 (20.5%), 163 (17.7%), 58 (6.3%), and 97 (10.5%), respectively. Thus, travelers going to malaria-free destinations spent significantly more time in planning their travel (χ2 = 50.619, p < 0.001). However, among

the 527 backpackers, the preparation period was 64 and 169 days, for the risk-free and at risk countries, respectively. Among all 2,495 respondents, 1,951 (78.2%) tried to get travel health information before departure. The most common resources were the Internet (32.5%), travel agencies (27.6%), and families/friends (25.6%). Overall, 998 (40.0%) sought a travel health consultation, 65.1% and 21.0% of them did so for 1–7 days and 8–14 days before departure, respectively. The reasons why other travelers did not consult travel health professionals are listed in Table 3. There was no significant difference between the malaria risk and risk-free groups. Travelers to malaria endemic areas learned details about the infection from different sources, the main ones being family and friends (114; 7.2%) and the Internet (105; 6.7%). Only 63 (4.0%) travelers received their knowledge from travel health providers, and 181 (11.5%) received information from other medical providers. However, 905 (57.