NEWS ANALYSIS:
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FEATURE:
Tackling insurance fraud in Nepal
Rise of the cybervillains
An update on the ongoing problem
It’s the new battleground
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SERVICE DIRECTORY
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– how can insurers protect themselves?
ESSENTIAL READING FOR TRAVEL & HEALTH INSURANCE PROFESSIONALS
It’s raining millennials – hallelujah!
JANUARY 2019 • ISSUE 216
Take care, mate Australians are being warned about engaging in risky behaviours while travelling, including – but not limited to – failing to take out appropriate travel insurance cover According to new figures recently released by the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, almost 11 million overseas trips were taken by Australian citizens in 2017, with more than one in five of these involving some time spent in a location in South East Asia. Unfortunately, Australians seem to be running into trouble in this region. “[South East Asia is] like our playground out the back,” said Phil Sylvester, Travel Safety Expert at Travel Insurance Direct, “and we forget it’s not actually the same country and that the same rules and standards don’t necessarily apply.” Worryingly, deaths of Australian tourists abroad have reportedly increased by 36 per cent over the past half a decade, with significant spikes noted in Thailand and the Philippines, according to the results of a joint survey undertaken by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Smartraveller website and the Insurance Council of Australia’s Understand Insurance project. Thailand was found to be the most dangerous country for Aussies, with 238 deaths in 2017, a 17-per-cent rise from the year before, followed by the Philippines – 153 deaths, a rise of 21 per cent – and Indonesia – 117 deaths, a rise of nine per cent. The US and Vietnam made up the rest of the top five, with 98 and 85 deaths in 2017 respectively (although these both represented
According to a new report, the greatest increase in intent to buy travel insurance has been noted among the millennial demographic insurance company Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection’s (BHTP) recent State of Travel Insurance research report found that, for the second consecutive year, younger travellers (those aged 25-44) are increasingly likely to purchase travel insurance. According to the report, 33 per cent of millennials with children intend to purchase more travel insurance in 2019, while 29 per cent of travellers aged 55 to 74 (boomers) said
they plan to buy less travel insurance. “Now in our fourth year of conducting the State of Travel Insurance research, we are seeing a trend that not just millennials, but more specifically millennials with children, are showing the most notable increase in travel insurance purchase intent,” said Dean Sivley, President of BHTP. “Millennials with children are also reporting that they travel to the most places and have indicated they are doing so even if risk, real or perceived, is involved.” Millennials with children are most concerned about threats that could impact their family, with 47 per cent of this segment citing disease outbreaks as a travel fear, compared with 38
per cent of millennials without children. Further findings included that: younger travellers cite tech-driven and customisable travel insurance as most important, with 43 per cent of younger travellers indicating that they would buy more travel insurance if they were able to customise their travel insurance compared to 21 per cent of older travellers; 38 per cent of younger travellers wish their travel insurance was as technologically advanced as the rest of their travel experience, compared to 16 per cent of older travellers; and younger travellers are much more likely than older travellers to be mindful of travel issues, with millennials pointing to long-term concerns such as climate change and vanishing destinations.
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