Have you observed an increase in demand for travel insurance over the past 24 months in general?

Without question we’ve seen a surge in travel insurance demand over the past two years. Our own data is showing that a slightly older demographic has been travelling in droves, motivated by return to ‘normal’ following the pandemic. Pent-up demand and a renewed appreciation for experiences has driven our volume to pre-pandemic levels. Further, with a heightened risk of global safety and security concerns, policies like the ones we offer are driving a significant value to the communities we support since we are available for all medical and non-medical crisis support.

What types of travel insurance products are most in demand currently and why?

We are certainly seeing an increase in flexibility and control of our members’ schedules – meaning if they are required to cancel or reschedule their travel plans, they want to do so without penalty or loss of investment; ergo we’ve seen a strong surge in our travel plans to support trip cancellation, trip interruption and cancel for any reason (CFAR) benefits.

Do you think anything has changed in terms of what customers are looking for in online insurers or insurance products? Are they looking for convenience when signing up to the contract and/or making claims?

I’ve recently been speaking at a few industry events, and one of my comments about consumer expectations is that we are all competing with the likes of

Today’s consumer has less time and more expectations, and our industry is prime for technology that meets these demands

Amazon, regardless of your industry. Why? They have created a consumer-based and intuitive e-commerce journey that makes getting anything insanely simple. We are using this experience as glide path for our consumer journey – embedded insurance, multi-factor authentication, payment gateway integration, fintech solutions, artificial intelligence (AI) solutions and high-service expectations, to name just a few. Today’s consumer has less time and more expectations, and our industry is prime for technology that meets these demands.

Please explain the thinking behind the partnership with Hotspot Cover. What gap does the new suite fill for customers? What is its market?

Our commitment to support the complete protection of our members isn’t limited to times of geopolitical calm; whether now for journalists, family or humanitarian support, or during the forthcoming rebuilding phase in many of these war-torn destinations, coverage is needed and we are honoured to help fill that gap in the marketplace via our partnership with Hotspot.

Do you think the resulting World Explorer series is a sustainable risk for the insurers involved? Conversely, will it be affordable?

We pride ourselves on our ability to offer unprecedented value at market-competitive costs, and plan to do so with our World Explorer series of products and services. Generally speaking, catastrophic events while on short-term travel are rare, which helps to keep plan losses at bay, and delivery of affordable insurance protection for our communities.

Can you please share how these products are innovative, including the key tech-enabled solutions?

While some of our technology is novel to our industry, other elements have simply been transferred into our very apathetic sector. We use the machines to identify and correlate our risk in real time, AI large language models provide information on every destination on the planet, fintech integrations and AI replicas of our team to reshape our approach to customer service and business development.

We use the machines to identify and correlate our risk in real time

What are some of the key trends we’ll be seeing in the online travel insurance products of the future?

A continued increase in embedded insurance solutions outside of the health and travel insurance industry. In a very competitive landscape, insurers should continue to push for overly simplified customer engagements and meeting the buyer when, where and how they want to be met. AI will continue to disrupt and displace operating models across the global economy.