Research from Gocompare.com finds that 1 in 5 Brits will take more notice of their travel insurance policies from now on
New research from leading comparison website Gocompare.com reveals that the publicity surrounding the disruption caused by the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland and industrial action at British Airways earlier this year has prompted wary Brits to take a lot more interest in their travel insurance.
Nearly 1 in 5 British holidaymakers said they will be taking more care to check what is and isn’t covered by their policy, and nearly 7% are likely to spend more money to get a better insurance policy rather than just choose the cheapest.
Around 90% of Brits will take out travel insurance before they go abroad this year, with 60% shopping around for the best deal by using a comparison website. However, around 1 in 10 travellers are still willing to run the risk of incurring unexpected travel expenses, losing their luggage or facing sky high medical bills by refusing to buy any travel insurance whatsoever.
Gocompare.com’s travel insurance comparison service now enables people to search for travel insurance policies that include additional cover for disruption caused by natural catastrophes such as a volcanic ash cloud. Insurers such as Bell, Elephant, Bargain Insurance and etravelinsurance.co.uk now offer a policy option known as ‘Travel Disruption Extension’ and Gocompare.com customers can now filter the results of their comparisons to include this additional level of cover.
Mark Greening, head of partnership products at Gocompare.com, said: “Many travellers caught up in the ash cloud chaos earlier this year expected their travel insurance policy to pay out for the additional costs they had to meet, but lots of people had to foot these extra bills themselves. Our research has shown that the publicity generated by the widespread disruption has caused many thousands of British holidaymakers to take far more interest in what their policy covers, rather than simply looking at the cost.
“This could be bad news for some budget insurers who sell purely on cost rather than cover but hopefully many more holidaymakers heading for the sun this year will be travelling with the right travel insurance rather than simply the cheapest.”
-ends-
For further information please contact:
Lynsey Walden or Anders Nilsson at Gocompare.com on 01633 654 055 / 01633 657 599
Gordon, Jason or Liz at MAW Communications on 01603 505 845
Notes to Editors:
Research commissioned by Gocompare.com - carried out with 3000 UK adults in May 2010 by OnePoll Research.
Gocompare.com launched in November 2006. It was founded by Hayley Parsons, who has worked her entire career in the insurance broking and aggregator markets, and was the first comparison sites to focus on displaying product features rather than just listing prices. It was this philosophy that led to Gocompare.com becoming the first price comparison site to be invited to join the British Insurance Brokers Association (Biba) in May 2008 and helped force older comparison sites to change their ‘quick quote’ ways and stop using assumptions to calculate estimated figures.
Today, Gocompare.com provides one of the most comprehensive online car insurance comparison services in the UK as well as comparing home, motorbike, van, pet insurance and breakdown cover.
Gocompare.com is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.