Travel & Tourism Insurance Guidelines by WTTC

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has unveiled its Insurance Guidelines to rebuild global consumer confidence to help encourage the return of travelling in the post-coronavirus world.

According to the WTTC, the guidelines are designed to drive the return of safe, healthy and responsible travel, providing peace of mind and risk mitigation to consumers, suppliers, and organisations across the Travel & Tourism sector.

“Insurance is vital for travellers to have peace of mind and confidence to travel and it is now more important than ever to create confidence for consumers travelling in the ‘new normal’ of COVID-19,” WTTC President & CEO Gloria Guevara said.

WTTC divided the new guidance into four pillars including operational and staff preparedness; ensuring a safe experience; rebuilding trust and confidence; innovation; and implementing enabling policies.

Highlights of recommendations include:

• All organisations to provide risk management plans, including how they aim to combat COVID-19, to insurers.
• Organisations to make sure their plans are thorough, practical, and simple to follow.
• All staff to be informed of protective measures being taken, which include insurance products that will cover them.
• Insurers to ensure audits identify and cover gaps and source the right partners and providers to ensure appropriate coverage.
• Insurers to create blanket insurance and crisis management coverage to give comfort to customers.
• Ensure there is enhanced awareness of the terms and conditions, restrictions, and coverage limits of insurance products/policies.
• Insurers to provide a minimum base of mandatory coverage for risks posed by COVID-19.
• Educate travellers who are unfamiliar with the risk they could be exposed to and what coverage to look for.

“The measures outlined in our Insurance Guidelines should help guide travel insurers to create products which contain every contingency needed offer reassurance to enable travel to recommence to those countries which have relaxed their border controls and travel restrictions,” Guevara added.

The new guidelines were compiled based on input from leading companies, many of which have partnered with trusted experts in public health and governments to support safe, healthy, and responsible travels.

They provide practical insights and guidelines around insurance for the Travel & Tourism private sector to equip them with the knowledge of risks, what insurance coverage they need to look for, and how to attain appropriate coverage for their needs.​​​

The WTTC’s insurance guidelines are included in its Safe Travels protocols for hotels, outdoor shopping and retail, aviation and airlines, tour operators and convention centres/meetings and events, which were widely endorsed and supported by top CEOs and business leaders globally.

To view the Insurance Guidelines in full or for further details about “Safe Travels”, press the following link:

Safe Travels Protocols