cancellations when an airline fails “tends to be specific to a jurisdiction. In the US, you don’t have that type of immediate shutdown of an operation. Airlines reorganise [under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection] and you know what is happening.”
He adds: “It is a manageable risk, [but] it
does increase the awareness of people.” Most major travel markets tend more
towards one of these areas than the other, he says.
“Japan is more medical. Germany is more
like the US, more about trip-cancellation, and German travellers pay a top-up on their health insurance when they travel. “Canada is more aligned with the UK and people serious about travel insurance. “In Asia, there is high awareness in
Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia. In China, they have their own version of travel insurance. In the Middle East, there is less of a perceived need [for travel insurance].” The third, emerging area is “an awareness that something could happen – a hurricane, an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, terrorism”. “There is increasing awareness of safety and security,” he says. For example, “travellers coming to the US could get involved in an active-shooter situation”. It is an area that is continually evolving.
He says: “Just when you figure out what all the risks are, something else happens. We’re always learning.”
The sheer number of incidents the sector has had to deal with means “the industry has moved to a place where it is able to manage through,” he says. “We’re constantly
International visitors Spain
France Italy
Germany UK
Austria
Netherlands Greece Croatia Turkey
44m 80m 279m
86m 89m
80m 66m 124m 211m 306m Spain
France Italy
Germany UK
Austria
Netherlands Greece Croatia Turkey
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 nights (m) 0 20 39% 80% 94% 59% 40 60 80 100 %
Figures rounded Source: Eurostat
21% 59% 71%
monitoring situations and travel companies are able to work though issues with travellers. “Usually there is a timeframe in a theatre
of operations, involving changes in travel plans [for those due to travel] and then it recovers.”
The one exception to this rule was the
volcanic eruption in Iceland in 2010. “Flights were affected across Europe for a period. It was a question of ‘When is airspace going to reopen?’ Rutledge says. “It led to the largest single payout we ever made, but we and other insurers were able to deal with that. That is what we do.” The spate of forest fires this summer
SPAIN records most nights by international arrivals, but the UK matches Spain for all tourism nights,
by domestic and international visitors (Figures 48 and 49). City tourism has outgrown beach holidays in the biggest markets (Figure 50), but domestic beach holidays retain strong allure, especially in Italy and, perhaps surprisingly, in the UK (Figure 51).
across destinations as disparate as Greece, Portugal, Sweden and California focused attention afresh on the impacts of global warming.
Rutledge says: “We take climate change
very seriously. We monitor it and the impact it will have and continue to look at the product
FIGURE 48: TOURISM NIGHTS BY DESTINATION ALL VISITORS: INTERNATIONAL & DOMESTIC
471m
405m 421m
389m 476m
121m 112m 111m
85m 112m 0
Spain France Italy
Germany UK
Austria
Netherlands Greece Croatia Turkey
100 200 300 400 500 nights (million) FIGURE 49: TOURISM NIGHTS BY DESTINATION
% of total tourism nights 65%
31% 50% 13% 15.5%
EU market share 15.5%
3.05bnTOURISM NIGHTS IN EU 2017
14% Figures rounded Source: Eurostat
13%
Travel Weekly Europe Report 2018 | 37
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