One-fifth of Scots holiday without insurance

A bank survey finds 20 per cent of Scottish holiday makers don’t take out travel insurance.

Travel Insurance News - 03/06/2010

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A huge fraction of Scottish holiday makers suffer from unwanted incidents while traveling but an alarmingly low number of them has any travel insurance. The Bank of Scotland found some rather worrying figures in its survey of how ready Scottish travelers are to handle the inevitable mishaps that occur on holiday.

Nearly 40 per cent of Scots on holiday suffer from problems like flight cancellation, lost or delayed baggage, medical emergencies, damaged mobile phones, or problems with vehicles. Almost half don’t have travel insurance that could have helped deal with the problems or perhaps even have prevented them outright.

Almost 40 per cent of Scots plan to spend their summer holidays outside of the country. A similar percentage (38 per cent) is likely to have no travel insurance. In the past, 18 per cent of Scottish holiday makers in the last six years went abroad with no travel insurance.

Given the level of disruption experienced in European air travel this year, and the number of popular holiday destinations currently seeing political instability or weather problems, the risks of traveling uninsured can be considerable.

For six days in March, almost all commercial air travel in Europe was at a standstill. The effects of flight disruptions were felt as far away as Thailand. Many European holiday makers had to sleep at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, awaiting the resumption of flights home. Meanwhile, the political situation in Thailand’s capital was on its march towards the deadly violence that flared up in April and May.

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