Half of UAE residents have never bought travel insurance before going on holiday, a new poll from Souqalmal.com found on Wednesday.
While 50 per cent never purchased travel cover, 26 per cent said they only bought a policy occasionally, according to the survey of 600 people from the UAE financial comparison website.
Souqalmal founder and chief executive, Ambareen Musa, said travellers should not take the risk of having no cover in place. “With travel insurance policies starting from as low as Dh20, it’s a small price to pay for getting covered against all kinds of travel risks and accidents, from poolside slips to stolen belongings and cancelled trips. Adequate coverage can save you thousands of dirhams in financial consequences of travel mishaps.”
Despite the low take-up on travel insurance, the Souqalmal study found that one in 10 UAE travellers have experienced a travel-related incident.
Plus, many worry about common travel troubles: 42 per cent reported concern about flight delays and cancellations, 33 per cent over medical emergencies and 25 per cent over lost baggage.
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A Dh100 travel insurance policy comes with emergency medical expense cover and personal liability cover worth $1 million (Dh3.67m) each, said Souqalmal. A trip cancellation and curtailment benefit could average $5,000.
These benefits along with other standard inclusions such as travel delays, loss of baggage or travel documents, and legal expenses, as well as optional add-ons like winter sports or golf cover for accidents, and terrorism extension of coverage in the event of such an attack, provide travellers with a wide range of options for financial protection against all sorts of risks.
A fifth of those polled in a June survey by financial website yallacompare, said the cost of travel insurance was the reason many residents did not sign up for a policy to cover their holiday