Zurich Travel Protection can help simplify trip insurance

Millennials, baby boomers and Gen Xers are exploring like never before, driving unprecedented growth in travel over the past decade. On international travel alone, Americans spent over billion in 2017, representing the largest year-over-year increase in spending of any group.¹

The latest travel trends, including higher spending per trip² and vacation destinations off the beaten path, are generating interest in travel insurance, for both monetary and safety reasons.³ But not all insurance policies or travelers are created equal, and sometimes they’re mismatched or misunderstood.

Zurich saw an opportunity to help simplify and customize leisure travel protection for U.S. travel suppliers and their customers. We drew on our global strengths — Zurich is one of the world’s top three providers of travel insurance⁴ — to bring world-class Zurich Travel Protection to our U.S. customers.

How Zurich Travel Protection works

• Zurich Travel Protection offers a wide range of coverages for both domestic and international trips. Options include trip cancellation and interruption; trip delay; medical and dental coverage; medical evacuation; baggage loss; security evacuation and more.
• From these options, Zurich works closely with travel suppliers, brokers and program administrators to configure a leisure travel protection plan that’s optimized to their customers’ needs and their business goals.
• The travel supplier — such as an online travel agent, airline, cruise line, hotel chain, vacation club or tour operator — then offers the protection to customers, typically at the time they’re booking the trip, through an easy-to-use Zurich interface.

Why Zurich? Global capabilities

Zurich Travel Protection is a natural extension of Zurich’s global capabilities, strong relationships and over 147 years of experience. Zurich offers products and services in more than 210 countries and territories.

Zurich also has long provided business travel accident coverages to many Fortune 500 companies, with renowned Zurich Travel Assist™ services, providing 24/7 support for medical, travel or security emergencies during a trip. Zurich Travel Assist services, with a mobile app for real-time information, are an option with Zurich Travel Protection.

In Canada, Zurich has launched a similar personal travel insurance policy. The two countries’ coverages, along with Zurich subsidiaries’ travel policies in other countries worldwide, can help U.S. travel suppliers provide reliable, compliant coverage for customers who reside outside the U.S., which is a gap in many travel insurance offerings on the market.

A top 3 travel insurance provider

In recent years Zurich Insurance Group has drawn on its A-rated financial strength⁵ to invest in expanding its travel capabilities internationally.

• In 2017, Zurich acquired Cover-More Group Limited, a global travel insurance and medical assistance provider based in Australia.
• Cover-More at that time was acquiring U.S.-based innovator Travelex, which is now part of Zurich.
• In 2018 Latin American brands Travel Ace and Universal Assistance joined the Zurich fold.

These acquisitions have helped expand Zurich’s capabilities and elevated Zurich Insurance Group to its standing as a top 3 travel insurance provider globally.

With leisure travel a key priority for the two largest adult generations in the U.S., international and domestic travel are expected to remain robust. According to one survey, the average traveling household plans to spend over ,400 on trips in 2019; baby boomers plan to spend the most, over ,600.⁶

Their quest for new experiences and active itineraries is fueling trends such as wellness travel, culinary tourism and purpose-driven travel, which has expanded from study abroad to humanitarian missions and eco-activism, sometimes in countries with greater security challenges.

With these trends in mind, Zurich can help travel suppliers convey the benefits of reliable, high-quality travel protection to their customers. As consumers shop for protection, travel experts advise choosing a plan from a company that is a member of the U.S. Travel Insurance Association (USTiA),⁷ as Zurich is.

In this dynamic time for travel, Zurich wants to help travel suppliers build a strong, vital relationship with their customers. As a global company from the start, we like helping travelers explore with confidence.

Meet Scott Fleming, Zurich’s U.S. Travel Protection Lead

 

1. United Nations World Tourism Organization. “UNWTO Tourism Highlights, 2018 Edition.” Madrid. 2018.
2. MMGY Global. 2018-2019 Portrait of American Travelers. https://www.mmgy.com/industry-insights/2018-19-portrait-of-american-travelers-study/
3. Rizzo, Cailey. “Why More Travelers Are Purchasing Travel Insurance This Year.“ Travel+Leisure. 31 July 2018.
4. Finnacord for Zurich Insurance Group. Travel Insurance and Assistance Global Market Share Estimates, 2017.
5. Rating as of Dec. 31, 2018. A.M. Best is under continuous review and subject to change and/or affirmation. For the latest Best’s Ratings and Best’s Company Reports (which include Best’s Ratings), visit the A.M. Best website at www.ambest.com. The rating represents the overall financial status of the individual member companies of Zurich in North America, including Zurich American Insurance Company, and is not a recommendation of the specific policy provisions, rates or practices of each issuing insurance company.
6. AARP Research. 2019 Boomer Travel Trends. December 2018. https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/research/surveys_statistics/life-leisure/2018/2019-boomer-travel-trends.doi.10.26419-2Fres.00263.001.pdf
7. Elliott, Christopher.“Everything You Need to Know About Travel Insurance.“ Travel+Leisure. 8 October 2016.