British holidaymakers 'shun travel insurance'
Monday, 06 Aug 2007 14:12
One in five British holidaymakers are failing to take out travel insurance, new research shows
One in five Britons travel without the appropriate insurance, a new survey has found.
Half of those who admitted to doing so said that they failed to secure cover because they forgot to.
But a startling ten per cent said they intentionally neglected to purchase travel insurance, a survey conducted on behalf of price comparison website moneysupermarket.com found.
It said that with growing numbers of people turning to the internet to book bargain breaks, would-be travellers appeared to be spending more time day-dreaming about getting away from it all than ensuring that they had insurance in place should anything go wrong on their trip.
Holidaymakers in their twenties are the most likely to intentionally travel uninsured according to the survey - which questioned just over 1,000 people.
Some 13 per cent of those within the age group said they purposely failed to buy travel insurance when heading off on holiday.
Men are also more likely than women to deliberately travel without insurance cover, with 12 per cent of males doing so compared to almost nine per cent of females.
"With the prospect of spending a few days in the sun, it appears travel insurance is the last thing on the mind of some Brits," commented moneysupermarket.com's director of insurance, Richard Mason.
"While holidaymakers might think nothing will happen to them while they are away, travel insurance is vital for claiming on cancellations, lost cash, public liability and providing emergency medical treatment.
"It gives you added peace of mind should anything go wrong."
Last week ministers urged British holidaymakers to take adequate precautions, including taking out appropriate travel insurance, before heading abroad.
Figures released by the Foreign Office in regard to consular assistance provided to Britons in other countries showed that roads, beaches, hotels, remote locations and ski slopes were the five locations where injuries were most likely to occur when people were on holiday.
Meanwhile Spain was named as the country where UK holidaymakers were most likely to report their passports lost or stolen, or to be arrested.