Tourism Breaking News
Emphasising the need for travel insurance and why it is a must for every journey, CA Krishnan R, Director & CEO, Unimoni Financial Services said, “Travel insurance is the best companion to take along when you embark on a journey inside the country or abroad. It will protect you from unexpected troubles and pitfalls like medical emergencies, trip cancellations, luggage loss, and several other unpleasant events. Policies are available for all kinds of travellers and age-groups such as solo travellers, group travellers, explorers, adventurers, senior citizens, and children.”
International Travel
Unlike domestic travel, international voyage makes it mandatory to buy travel insurance as you are exploring a foreign land which is generally an unfamiliar territory. It bails you out from all kinds of emergency situations and troubles which can’t be predicted or avoided in normal circumstances.
Domestic Travel
Insurers cover domestic travel, too, which makes the journey safe, secure and enjoyable. It helps you to overcome unpleasant incidents and circumstances such as emergency hospitalization, loss of luggage, theft, loss of personal belongings/ valuables, and trip cancellations that emerge unexpectedly.
Travel insurance policies are of different types:
1) Single Trip Insurance
If you go for a single trip, the travel insurance will provide you protection for a certain period of time – normally, from the starting date to the return date. It protects you from things that could go wrong during the trip. These include illness, accidents, blockades, flight cancellation, trip cancellation, baggage loss and more.
2) Multi-Trip Insurance
If you are a frequent flyer, especially for business purpose, then multi-trip travel insurance comes handy for you. It helps you save a lot of time, energy and money by combining all travel coverage or needs in one go. That is, no need to buy travel insurance every time. You will get the same level of protection whenever you travel.
3) Group/Family Cover
Group travel insurance offers equal protection for everyone in your family, group or team, and it is best suited for business trips, family vacations and pilgrimages. It is important to choose the cover based on your requirements as different insurers provide different types of protection.
4) Business Travel
This insurance policy covers business travel and corporate visits exclusively and comprehensively. Generally, it is valid for a single business trip and it offers coverage for all untoward incidents and travel-related troubles.
5) Student Travel
If you have any plan to go for higher education abroad, student travel insurance is a must. Apart from the basic insurance features, student travel insurance offers special features such as study interruption compensation (due to ill health), compassionate visits (by a family member), travel back home (for the student), and personal accident liability.
6) Senior Citizen Cover
Since senior citizens are vulnerable to various health hazards, this travel insurance is indispensable for them. It also considers the possibility of aggravating their age-related problems; hence, the premium will be higher compared to other travel policies.
There are different situations in which we can avail insurance protection.
Accidents and illness are the top priority. Flight delays come second. Long delays (for example, 12 hours or more) will be compensated either with fixed payouts or reimbursements. Trip cancellation due to hospitalisation is another reason to avail insurance protection. Missed flight or missed connecting flight is a major reason to rely on the cover. Some insurance companies cover all legs of the journey but some only on return journeys. Delay or loss of checked-in luggage and denied boarding are other serious incidents that are covered by most insurers. However, it must be remembered that most insurers do not cover injuries due to adventure sports or alcohol-drug consumption.
Notably, certain rules must be followed while buying a travel insurance. It comes with a cost and, hence, has to meet some eligibility criteria. The first and foremost thing is, the traveller must have a valid visa. Second, if you overstay in a country after the visa expiry, you won’t be eligible for any kind of cover. Third, if you are terminally ill on or just before your travel, insurers won’t cover your medical expenses in a foreign land. More importantly, insurers also deny coverage if they find that the sole purpose of the foreign visit is to treat a previously-existed illness.
