“There’s always been a much greater awareness of travel insurance in the Canadian market than in the US market, but we’re certainly seeing that grow. We’re seeing most travelers being much savvier,” Lofdhal defined.
After greater than 25 years serving American vacationers, Travelex Insurance Services introduced it’s increasing into Canada. Full operations, together with claims administration and journey help, shall be provided from its new location in Toronto. For Lofdhal, the enterprise has been a very long time coming.
“We had plans in place to be in Canada and then the world stopped,” she mentioned, referring to the pandemic. “Our expansion into Canada now gives us the opportunity to serve travelers throughout North America, whether they book travel insurance through a travel professional, tour operator, or our website.”
Today Nov. 21, 2022, Travelex Insurance Services introduced its enlargement into Canada, working as Travelex Insurance Services Canada Inc. Check out the press launch https://t.co/W6rMmiMQqt for information. #TravelWithTravelex #TravelexInTheNews #TravelexCanada #DreamExploreTravelOn pic.twitter.com/vyTRZ1ftyT
— Travelex Insurance (@TravelexIns) November 21, 2022
How has journey insurance coverage modified because the pandemic?
COVID-19 triggered to frame closures throughout the globe and launched super uncertainty into the journey expertise. As a outcome, shoppers at the moment are extra risk-aware, ask extra questions, take into account what-if eventualities of their itineraries, and take extra care to learn insurance coverage coverage language to make sure they’re protected.
Canadians sought out journey insurance coverage insurance policies for peace of thoughts, at the same time as borders re-opened and pandemic restrictions eased. Rate comparability web site RATESDOTCA discovered Canadian journey insurance coverage quotes within the third quarter of 2021 jumped 293% than the identical interval the 12 months prior, although citation ranges nonetheless weren’t again to their pre-pandemic state.
“I’ve seen pretty much every era of travel, but [the pandemic] was the most unique,” mentioned Lofdhal, who lately celebrated her twenty sixth 12 months with Travelex. The previous few years with COVID-19 put the journey insurance coverage business in “response mode,” she mentioned, as suppliers expanded their companies to cater to vacationers’ pressing wants.
“Most insurance companies had to turn into service entities. We had to stop selling and begin servicing [travelers], who had questions that were much more complicated than we had ever experienced. There was a lot of refunds, date transfers, and other things that impacted previously sold policies,” Lofdhal mentioned. “We’ve had to change as an organization to fulfill that service proposition. We’re here for you, and we will ask or answer those difficult questions.”
The pandemic challenged journey insurers to step up. Travelex responded to requires flexibility by introducing a “cancel for any reason” protection in mid-2021 as an add-on to its journey insurance policies. The protection, geared toward restoring journey confidence amongst Americans, permits policyholders to cancel their journey as much as 48 hours earlier than their departure date and obtain as much as 50% of their non-refundable cost.
Travelex additionally launched a journey help cell app in 2021 to additional help its clients. The app supplies real-time notifications concerning well being, safety, journey necessities, and different key info primarily based on a traveler’s location.
Catering to the Canadian traveler
Having joined the Zurich Insurance household of manufacturers in 2017, Travelex has sought to broaden its presence within the world journey market. According to Lofdhal, the corporate’s transfer into Canada bridges a spot for its companions and opens extra alternatives for Travelex services.
“Many of our US partnerships have Canadian operations, and they have wanted us to bring our service across and begin to supporting them in those distributions,” the CEO informed Insurance Business. “For us, it was the perfect opportunity to begin considering that we were part of a larger global entity.”
Travelex received’t apply the identical lens it makes use of for American vacationers to its Canadian shoppers. The firm is tailoring its choices to assist Canadian vacationers at each stage of their journey, mentioned Lofdhal. It can be wanting into parametric coverages to boost its choices in Canada.
She additionally cited “fundamental differences” between the US and Canada journey insurance coverage markets, particularly round medical companies.
“Traditional medical limits of Canadians far surpass those of American travelers, so we need to keep those differences in the forefront. We want to ensure that we’ve got those base level coverages that Canadians expect. Our service needs to be fit for purpose, and fit for the needs of the Canadians,” Lofdhal added.