06 September 2011
This week the Ski Season kicked off with the ABTOF Autumn Wintersports Seminar in London. We at MPI Brokers, insurance providers for the travel industry, were very pleased to be one of the sponsors of the event.
With over thirty years’ experience in Travel Insurance personally and professionally we are well-known for our expertise particularly in Wintersports. We understand ski; for example the real difference between on and off piste, the cover needed when leaving skis outside mountain restaurants, inclusion of avalanche cover causing delays and of course the need to insure responsibly.
The point I made in my short presentation was that we have to work together across the industry to ensure that customers are properly covered. The introduction of price comparison websites has encouraged customers to compare the price rather than the level of cover. In Wintersports, cover is most definitely more important than cost.
We need to make sure that skiers are insuring responsibly.
Premiums are higher than they were in part due to world disasters, for example tsunamis, earthquakes and floods in Japan, New Zealand and the USA. In the global marketplace these world events have affected the reinsurance market and in turn augmented premiums. In addition there are the increases in taxation both VAT, IPT and of course good old regulation!
This coupled with the current economic climate tempts travellers to cut corners sometimes taking the risk and travelling uninsured. The knock-on effect is higher premiums for the rest of us and for those travelling uninsured high costs in the short-term when things go wrong.
Travel insurance is one of the most complicated financial instruments anyone can buy; it is multi-faceted incorporating medical, liability, event cancellation and property insurance. This is where we at MPI Brokers are able to help, with our specialist knowledge of ski we know where the pitfalls are and are able to advise on cover.
In conclusion, most tour operators include a term in the booking conditions obliging customers to have insurance to an adequate level and requesting proof from them in the form of their insurance certificate.
The point I want to reiterate to Tour Operators is:
How many of you follow this up?
At MPI we have some ideas to help manage this, so by working together we can encourage skiers to insure responsibly. If you would like to know more please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Happy Skiing!
