Insurers brace to deal with travel hiccups this summer

Dubai / Emirates Business

The summer travelling season has kicked off with a bang and, with Dubai Airports reporting ever-increasing numbers of travellers month on month, drawing in an impressive 7.24 million passengers in March of this year, travel insurance providers are preparing themselves for the surge in claims.
A recent survey found that as many as 80 per cent of travellers have experienced some sort of travel-related incident, with flight delays hitting the top spot, followed by illness and then by trip postponement (or cancellation). The survey also showed that theft was the top fear (52 percent), followed by concern about injury or accident (44 percent), followed closely by loss of luggage. Despite this, a survey of UAE residents by YouGov found that 58 percent of residents don’t purchase travel insurance and a third say they only do occasionally.
With such high incidences of issues and wide-spread concern about the subsequent financial implications of facing issues when travelling, why is it that vacationers aren’t more diligent about taking out travel insurance before they jet off?
Jonathan Rawling, CFO of compareit4me.com, says: “It seems that people do want the safety net of travel insurance, but don’t really know where to start. Most of us spend a long time saving for, planning and looking forward to our holidays and the last thing any of us wants is to be thinking about what would happen if the flight was cancelled or overbooked or indeed, if our luggage didn’t arrive at our destination or we were to have a medical emergency or loss of belongings while abroad.”
He added: “Travel insurance takes all of these worries away, leaving us to focus on enjoying the well-deserved trip. In addition, all of this peace of mind often comes at just a tiny fraction of the cost of your trip. Consequently, we have teamed up with Allianz Global Assistance to introduce travel insurance to our customers, offering various types of travel cover under three distinct brands. Customers can buy online at compareit4me.com and receive their policy instantly.”
Worldwide, Allianz Global Assistance reacts to a travel insurance issue every two seconds, making them leaders in their industry and a brand that people trust. Whether its one-off single trip coverage for a specific destination, or to cover a specific activity (such as skiing), or a more comprehensive annual cover for the entire family, Allianz Global Assistance has options to suit every itinerary. And with compareit4me.com’s easy-to-use finance comparison platform, it’s now easier than ever to find the right travel insurance policy to suit your travel plans.