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TRAVEL INSURANCE
by Anna Game-Lopata
Mandarin feature
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TRAVEL TAKES OFF With COVID restrictions fading into collective memory, global travel is surging — and for online travel insurers, this means heightened demand for easily accessible cover options.
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ara Morton, group CEO of online insurance provider Cover-More, knew that the COVID-19 pandemic would turn travel insurance on its head and that tourists would expect much more from insurance providers once travel was possible again. “Cover-More spent the two long years of the pandemic focused on digital transformation, a more relevant customer experience and product design that incorporated previously unavailable cover for pandemics,” she says. “We also invested heavily in technology to support travel risk management services for both business and leisure travellers. In fact, the Cover-More travel safety app that we launched in Australia in 2022 and in New Zealand in November 2023 is the first of its kind, delivering corporate-level travel assistance services to Australian and New Zealand leisure travellers.”
JOURNAL // ISSUE 04 2023 // ANZIIF.COM
New enthusiasm for travel insurance
An unprecedented surge in travel in the years since the relaxation of COVID restrictions has been accompanied by an increase in demand for travel insurance. Allied Market Research reports that the value of the global travel insurance market was more than US$14 billion in 2021, and a growth of nearly 25 per cent will see it reach US$124.8 billion by 2031. Etiqa Insurance Singapore chief marketing officer Shirley Tan says Singapore’s outbound travel is on an uptrend, with residents making 5.15 million departures by air and sea in 2022, compared with 1.5 million departures in 2020. “Singaporeans are embarking on more trips for several reasons, including ‘revenge travel’,” Tan says. “The uptake of travel insurance has increased as many Singaporeans experienced sudden cancellations and disruptions during the pandemic.