New Type of Travel Insurance for Independent Travellers

AXA launches new Independent Travellers insurance for growing market of 'go-it-alone' holiday makers.

Despite the increasing economic gloom, the holiday season is approaching and millions of Brits will be preparing to travel abroad over the summer months. But AXA warns that increasing numbers of people arranging their own holidays may be leaving themselves exposed despite taking out travel insurance.

Over the last few years the number of Independent Travellers has overtaken the number of Package Holiday Travellers. Internet access and low-cost airlines have helped escalate this trend – in 2006 over 16 million Independent Travellers headed overseas for holidays between April and September*.

However, insurance provision has not kept pace with the changing profile of the British holidaymaker and Independent Travellers can find that there are gaps in their insurance cover which AXA are addressing with their Independent Travellers cover, available with AXA travel insurance from www.axa.co.uk/travelinsurance.

The new product is an optional extension which costs as little as an additional £10 for annual European cover. It covers travellers for a number of areas such as problems with flight cancellations or delays, missed connections or the customer being denied boarding.

With a package holiday, the tour operator or travel agent is legally required to make suitable alternative arrangements for such eventualities, but the independent traveller must make and pay for their own arrangements.

Edward Dutton, AXA’s Personal Insurance Director said: “We are aware from our own claims area that Independent Travellers have run into problems with their travel insurance and a recent report from Defaqto underlined the need for insurers to offer cover that helps customers when things go wrong – the things that would normally be picked up by a tour operator or travel agent if it were a package holiday.

“We believe that the rise of the Independent Traveller is something that all insurers should be addressing – as the Ombudsman pointed out in his latest report ‘There is clearly a mismatch in … what insurers intend to offer and the cover that consumers believe they are buying.’”

The additional cover offered by this optional extension includes:

* delayed departure compensation for delays exceeding 5 hours occurring at the departure point of any connecting flights or booked public transportation on both the outbound and return journeys

* cancellation costs if you cancel your trip, or additional expenses to reach your destination because your flight from the UK was cancelled, delayed for more than 5 hours or you were denied boarding due to the flight being overbooked

* additional accommodation and travel expenses if you are delayed and miss any onward connecting flights or other public transport

* irrecoverable unused accommodation costs or additional expenses if your trip is affected by insolvency of the providers, an outbreak of food poisoning or infectious disease or natural disasters such as fire, flood or earthquake

* ONS – Travel Trends 2006: based on 69.5 million visits abroad in 2006, 65% of which were for holidays = 45 million. Of these 63% were taken between April and September = 28 million. Independent Travellers account for 58% of holidays = 16 million.