It's no news that the demand for travel has rebounded since the pandemic - and it seems that the pandemic's reinforcement of the message that Canadians shouldn’t travel without proper insurance coverage has been heard loud and clear.
In a recent survey of Canadians conducted for insurer Blue Cross of Canada, a whopping 42 per cent of respondents said they are now more likely to buy travel insurance coverage when planning a trip compared to before the pandemic.
So great is the spike in demand, according to a report in the Globe, that travel insurers are struggling to keep up with demand this busy winter and Spring Break travel season.
Travel insurer Allianz Global Assistance is warning customers on its web site of call times potentially exceeding 30 minutes and claim-processing taking up to eight weeks amid “higher than average” call and claim volumes.
While emergency medical calls are always prioritized, “call volumes can fluctuate unexpectedly during the busy winter travel season, occasionally leading to longer wait times,” Dan Keon, vice-president of marketing and insights at Allianz Global Assistance Canada, told the Globe. However, Keon said the company is “prepared and fully staffed” for the current travel season.
Isabelle Beaudoin, president and co-founder of insurance company First Rate Insurance Inc., described dealing with an “unprecedented” amount of travel insurance requests this winter travel season. “I would not be surprised if it translates into longer wait times getting through the insurer during travel,” she is reported saying.
Martin Firestone, president of Toronto-based insurance company Travel Secure, is reported as saying that he’s recently heard from clients struggling to reach their insurance providers during travel, including travellers who called to seek assistance in a medical emergency. “Which really is bad because that’s hardly the service that we want or that people expect when they buy a policy,” he said.
Faced with unusually high demand, travel insurance providers are struggling to ramp up staffing because of widespread labour shortages, Firestone added. On top of that, Canada's own health care crises can add to delays bringing injured travellers home when domestic hospitals have no room for them, he said.
