Travel insurance business suffers in Turkey
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, total insurance premium has fallen drastically in Turkey, according to data from the Insurance Association of Turkey (TSB)
In May alone, insurance premium fell to TRY38.4 million, a change of over 50 per cent compared to May 2019. Between 29 March and 1 June, domestic travel was restricted in Turkey, while international travel was restricted between 29 March and 11 June. The peak of the pandemic in Turkey was in April.
Insurance industry experts have said they expect domestic travel to recover before international travel. Derya Kul Senturk, Special Risks and Reinsurance Manager at Turkish insurer Koru Sigorta, said: “Travel volume will be low, and people will choose individual travel instead of tours. In addition, banks are offering travel insurance loan packages to revive tourism. This will benefit sales of travel health products.”
Additionally, travellers booking holidays are more likely to buy travel insurance policies, as they are concerned about Covid-19. Travel insurance comparison site Squaremouth found in a survey that one-third of all policies that had been purchased for travel this summer included cancel for any reason benefits, with the percentage of travellers choosing to purchase this kind of policy having increased by 680 per cent.