Sixty years of providing assistance
Hassen Bennour, Europ Assistance Chief Executive Officer Asia Pacific and Middle East, speaks to Michelle Royle about their history, what they offer travellers, and embracing new technology
You have been with Europ Assistance for a year, but in the industry for much longer. What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in the industry recently?
Digitalisation, customisation, and the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), are all aiming to enhance customer experience and streamline processes, and are impacting all insurance sector players. The travel insurance and assistance ecosystem is going through the same transformation. On the digital front, the sector witnesses growing online platforms and mobile applications to make purchasing policies and filing claims more seamless and user-friendly, streamlining processes and enhancing convenience for travellers. There's also a trend towards offering personalised and flexible insurance plans tailored to individual preferences and travel requirements, ensuring appropriate coverage.
Access to customers is impacted by the development of embedded distribution models. Whether this is via airlines, cruise carriers, online travel agencies, super apps, or more traditional distribution partners, this commands excellence in acquiring, onboarding and managing strategic distribution partnerships for insurers.
Europ Assistance offers customers a wide range of products, from medical assistance to emergency evacuations. Tell us more about what you offer travellers.
For over 60 years, we've built a medical network with 750K medical providers globally, ensuring quality and efficiency, notably via investment in digital tools and annual on-site medical audits. This gives us unique service efficiency, supporting rapid management of complex cases and readiness for global events.
Our medical directors across continents are leading a team of over 500 in-house professionals, supported by 5K+ medical and travel assistance experts in 39 multi-lingual centres, offering assistance in over 200 countries. This extensive expertise has positioned Europ Assistance at the forefront during major crises, including the 2004 Tsunami, 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2011 Japan earthquake, and the 2020 Covid-19 crisis, among others.
We handle over 40K medical assistance cases annually, including 800 air ambulance and 2,500 commercial airline repatriations.
Beyond medical assistance, we provide the full range of travel assistance services, including trip cancellation, lost luggage assistance, emergency travel arrangements, legal support, and concierge services. Our aim is to bring people from distress into relief, demonstrating our vision to be the most reliable care company globally, caring for travellers wherever they go.
As travel recovers from the pandemic, are there any new medical travel aspects or trends which Europ Assistance has recognised?
The increased focus on health and safety is reshaping the industry. There is a surge in demand for medical assistance services such as telemedicine, virus testing, and vaccination information, highlighting travellers' increased awareness and concern for their health. To address these needs, Europ Assistance offers updated insurance products that cover pandemic-related expenses, including trip cancellations and medical treatments, providing financial protection and peace of mind. The company also publishes a medical newsletter to keep travellers informed of health trends and successes in travel health management.
There's also a growing interest in sustainable travel, with travellers seeking to reduce their environmental impact. We support sustainable and responsible travel, promoting a culture of sustainability among its employees, customers, and suppliers. As travel norms and regulations evolve, we continue to adapt our offerings to meet the changing needs of travellers.
Tell us about your eClaims platform
Our travel eClaims portal offers a user-friendly online platform for submitting and tracking claims, significantly reducing processing time to under five business days post-information receipt. Customers can file a claim in less than five minutes using prefilled data, and benefit from additional services like insurance certificate reissuance and real-time claim status updates. The portal is multi-country, multi-lingual and offers white label or cobranded integrations options for our partners.
It is Europ Assistance’s 60th birthday. What’s next for the business?
Looking ahead the emphasis is on sustainability, eco-friendly practices, and customer-centricity. We are betting on advancing digital and customer experiences to be personalised and efficient. We have practical and fascinating AI use-cases that we have already deployed in some places where we operate. That’s an area we are naturally exploring as well.
More than ever we remain committed to our mission; “Bring people from distress to relief, anywhere, anytime”.
Hassen Bennour Chief Executive Officer Asia Pacific and Middle East
Hassen started his career in 2001 as a consultant in Paris for European Financial Institutions. In 2005 he joined the asset management arm of AXA Group in Paris, and then held various leadership positions for AXA in the Middle East such as Program Manager, Head of Strategy & Corporate Development and Chief Executive Officer for the UAE Life & Medical Insurance company AXA Green Crescent. In 2018 he moved to the Trace Credit Insurance industry as Chief Executive Officer Middle East and Africa for Coface Group. In 2023 he joined Europ Assistance as Chief Executive Officer overseeing Asia, Pacific & Middle East. In this role he’s leading the operations and expansion of Europ Assistance Group footprint across this wide, diverse, and fast-growing set of markets.
April 2024
Issue
We examine the outbound travel trends within the Middle East and Africa; consider what international private medical insurance workers in isolated areas need, and how these services are being delivered; plus we report from the sessions and networking events at ITIC Americas in Panama.
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