The spread of COVID-19 forced many in the travel insurance market to pause the sale of new policies and adapt their wording in order to minimise losses. Saga is the latest provider to adapt its policies – this time with the aim of allowing customers to experience some form of a summer season with greater confidence.
Saga was the 16th most popular travel insurance provider in 2019 according to GlobalData’s UK Insurance Consumer Survey, which is a strong position given that the company’s policyholders are exclusively over 50s. The announcement that Saga will now protect policyholders against trip cancellation claims, should they have a positive COVID-19 test result within 14 days of travel or whilst abroad, will help set the bar for the rest of the market.
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Prospective travellers will welcome the change to policies as the fear of being unable to go on a trip due to quarantine rules will have been limiting the number of trips booked and stifling growth in the travel insurance market. The change to the policy wording is of particular significance given the greater impacts COVID-19 has on the older population.
However, despite the policy going further than others currently available it will still not be enough to spur growth in the travel insurance market. Globally the spread of COVID-19 appears to be on the resurgence, with local lockdown measures being implemented and changing quarantine rules becoming increasingly common. Despite this, policy wording must continue to be adapted to provide some element of cover against COVID-19 in order to allow the travel insurance market to recover from its greatest ever shock.
If interest in international travel remains well below pre-COVID-19 levels for some years then the travel insurance market may have to look towards marketing policies for staycations. The popularity of staycations has increased drastically this year, and although such policies need not cover the same perils as they do for international travel, this segment could be a hotbed for future growth.
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By GlobalData
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Saga plc