Despite purchasing a travel insurance policy for COVID-19 pandemic protection, 50% of Australian travellers said they were not covered for pandemic-related reasons, the second-highest rate of non-coverage globally among 20 countries surveyed by Momentive.ai.
This year, Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) CEO Andrew Hall emphasised the significance of taking out travel insurance if you're leaving Australia, claiming it remains essential for all reasons it was pre-pandemic: to protect the traveller when the unexpected occurs far from home.
However, a recent travel insurance survey commissioned by Cover Genius found that many Australian travellers were dissatisfied with their experience, with 39% of respondents planning to switch from their current travel insurance channel due to dissatisfaction with their coverage and claims experiences.
When asked to rate their claims experience, the respondents gave a net promoter score (NPS) of -43 for all sources of travel insurance (travel provider or agent, online insurer, health insurer, or credit card). Meanwhile, Australian customers with free insurance via their credit card rated their experience with a post-claim NPS of -46 and an average completion time of 17 days.
The travel insurance survey revealed 40% prefer purchasing travel insurance directly from their travel provider or agent for their next trip, a dramatic increase from 27% who purchased this way in the last 18 months, making it the highest adoption rate for embedded travel insurance on a regional (APAC) scale.
Comparing recent and future purchase preferences, 68% of respondents who purchased coverage from their travel provider will do so again, while 46% who bought from an online insurer will switch to another protection source next time. This is the highest percentage globally and it reflects deep dissatisfaction with online insurers since the pandemic began.
“In today's environment, the nation's leading digital and digitally-enabled companies – whether airlines, OTAs, cruise lines or even banks and fintechs – need to lean on insurtechs for tailored protection suitable for their customers, rather than relying on traditional insurers and legacy systems to administer protection to their customers in their time of need,” said Angus McDonald, CEO and co-founder of Cover Genius.
