Health tourism is touted as the "next big thing" in Australia.

During the Australian Tourism Export Council's Symposium yesterday, key delegates explained that health tourism will certainly help place the State in the map.

Hobart's council spokesperson Matthew Hingerty said the State has the capacity to cope and treat patients who travel from other countries.

In a report revealed by Hingerty, an estimate of 5,000 people, mostly from the Pacific, end up going to Australia for medical treatments because they could not get one from their own countries.

"Health tourism is a growing global market. Health is globalizing the same way as any other industry and the good news is we have spare capacity in the private health system," he said.

"There's about 160,000 spare beds a year so a few of those handed over to well-heeled tourists can only help our industry."

Other issues were also addressed during the symposium, such as travel holidays.

Minister Martin Ferguson of the Federal Tourism is optimistic that numbers of European visitors will recover from the Iceland volcano soon. However, he said that there is a burgeoning problem in regards to convincing Australians to make use of their annual leave.

"We have 121 million days of accumulated annual leave worth $33 billion. Australians should firstly have a holiday and have it here at home in Australia," he said.

Meanwhile, the bank sector was advised to go easy on struggling operators. Hingerty appealed to banks that small businesses need time to recover from the economic crisis.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd commends the industry for a job well done during the time of the crisis.

"I appreciate the fact that you've all had the guts to stick with it. This has been an appallingly difficult time for your industry," the prime minister said.