Importance of International travel insurance

Experts would argue that having an insurance policy is as important as booking a hotel or a land tour package and that insurance should never be looked upon as an expense but as a mandatory investment. The purpose of insurance is to safeguard the financial status of the insured in the unfortunate and unforseen event of a claim – be it a medical expense or for any non medical cover like Baggage Loss or Baggage Delay, Trip Delay, Bounced Hotel, Missed Connection etc.

Ask a traveller who has lost his baggage or passport, or had a flight delayed and spent 12-18 hours at the airport, or someone who didn’t have a room to check into since the hotel had overbooked their customers, ask a traveller who has had to pay for his/her medical treatment through their personal savings and all of them will say that travel insurance should ideally be amongst the first few boxes to tick off when planning an International holiday.

For any Indian traveller who is going abroad, it is very important to purchase travel insurance. While it is not a mandatory product for travel to most countries abroad (except Schengen, UAE and Australia (for certain age groups)), having an insurance cover can give the traveller peace of mind in case of any unforeseen exigency (medical or non-medical) while they are enjoying their holiday/business trip. As most travellers will be aware, the cost of any medical treatment is astronomical when compared to India and hence the traveller could end up spending a large part of their savings for treatment abroad in case of an unfortunate accident or sickness. The cost of insurance is a fraction of the most of medical treatment and hence it is advisable to travel abroad with insurance. Secondly there are many non medical emergencies like Loss of Passport, Baggage Loss / Delay, Flight Delay, Trip Cancellation, Missed Connection etc that can be covered and this will not result in a financial loss to the traveller.

Travel insurance is perhaps the best idea for an International Traveller. While current data suggests that travel insurance is the last thing on the travellers mind when they plan a trip to foreign shores, it is imperative that the discerning traveller gives way more importance to travel insurance than what is it currently being given. Experts would argue that having an insurance policy is as important as booking a hotel or a land tour package and that insurance should never be looked upon as an expense but as a mandatory investment. The purpose of insurance is to safeguard the financial status of the insured in the unfortunate and unforseen event of a claim – be it a medical expense or for any non medical cover like Baggage Loss or Delay, Trip Delay, Bounced Hotel, Missed Connection etc.