In volume terms, the number of Indians traveling abroad has jumped a massive 137%2, taking it to 18 million from just 7.1 million in 2021, as per data from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Bureau of Immigration (BoI). These trends are set to get more pronounced with more Indians traveling for a variety of reasons—education, work, leisure, destination wedding or health, among others.
However, despite the numbers painting a positive picture of travel spending, considering the prevailing global macroeconomic gloom and the climate of big layoffs, unemployment and income insecurity, Indian travelers remain susceptible to windfalls. This makes investing in a travel insurance policy a necessity rather than a luxury, an imperative rather than a feel-good afterthought.
While reasons may vary, it is essential that travelers purchase travel insurance policies to safeguard against any unexpected event, risks and allied issues. Some of these include:
- Medical emergencies: Another thing to keep in mind is that in foreign countries the cost of medical care is much higher than in India and out-of-pocket expense is not feasible. To cover the cost of expenses arising out of medical emergencies, and its coverage is specific to the country’s healthcare costs and bears minimum criteria of required travel insurance coverage.
- Loss of checked-in baggage: Such losses may be due to airlines misplacing luggage, human error, theft etc. Loss of checked-in baggage is taken care of in terms of specific extent of the financial loss and valuable time loss.
- Trip cancellations and delays: Travellers’ nightmares are not new on social media, where travel bloggers often narrate their own experiences. Such loss may be due to last-minute cancellations from airlines, unprecedented delays etc. This results in spending long hours in airports, families struggling with the elderly and children.
- Loss of passport: Losing your passport happens more often than most people think. It usually means a lot of paperwork from filing a police report, reapplying for your passport at the embassy to obtaining emergency travel documents. Travel insurance helps you understand and alleviate the anxiety related to this process.
Reliance General Insurance (RGICL) provides an array of travel insurance options as below, which cover destinations across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the US, Canada and worldwide.
Reliance Travel Care Policy: This is a flagship policy from Reliance General Insurance dedicated to international travel. It provides dedicated policies for both solo and family trips and offers country-specific plans. They provide solo travel insurance plans in different tiers ranging from Standard to Platinum allowing travelers to choose what suits them.
Reliance Travel Care Policy provides a minimum medical cover of $50,000 (standard) and a maximum cover of $500,000 (Platinium) for individuals. For family trips, RGI offers two tiers—Standard and Gold. The policy provides an extensive list of covers and, more importantly, the interface is extremely simple and intuitive making the process of purchasing travel insurance simple. For more information, visit Reliance Travel Care Policy.
Asia Plan: As Dubai continues to be the most searched international destination followed closely by Bangkok and Singapore, the popularity of major tourist hotspots in Asia (especially south-east Asia) has exploded and more and more Indians are visiting these places.
This plan has two tiers—Standard and Silver. Both the Standard and Silver offer similar coverage, but the silver category has a higher coverage of $30,000 for medical expenses, while the Standard plan has a coverage of $25,000. The Reliance General Insurance Asia Plan offers zero paperwork, with no medical checkups and cashless hospitalization. Covers for delayed checked-in baggage, loss of passport, and trip delay are also provided in both Standard and Silver. For more information, visit Asia Plan.
Schengen Plan: The Schengen area in continental Europe includes 27 countries with a population of around 420 million people. The Schengen area allows paperless travel among member countries with minimum checks and is a major destination for Indians.
RGI’s Schengen Plan has two tiers—Basic and Standard. There are significant differences between the two plans. While Basic offers a coverage of €30,000 for medical expenses, the Standard plan offers coverage of €50,000 for medical expenses.
The Basic plan does not provide coverage for loss of passport, delay, or loss of checked-in luggage, or coverage for personal liability (when someone causes injury to a third party or their property). The Standard plan provides covers for all of these. The Basic plan only covers medical expenses, dental treatment and personal accidents. For more information, visit the Reliance General Insurance Schengen Plan.
Student Plan: Students with a minimum age of 16 years and a maximum age of 35 years can avail the Reliance General Insurance Student Plan. The plan has five tiers—Basic, Standard, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The basic plan has no coverage for medical expenses and dental treatment.
All the plans provide the same coverage for study interruption (provides cover for tuition fees paid in advance when the student cannot continue the classes due to Insured’s hospitalization of more than a month or the death of the family member), sponsor protection (this provides coverage if the sponsor dies and will reimburse the tuition fees for remaining period of education), and bail bond (coverage towards payment of bail bond to the appropriate authority/Court if student is arrested/detained and offense is bailable).
The major advantage of the higher tier plans is the high coverage for medical expenses that they provide. For more information, visit Reliance General Insurance Student Travel Plan.
Apart from this comprehensive list of travel insurance solutions, RGI also provides a dedicated solution for senior citizens with its Senior Citizen Plan, which provides cover for senior citizens up to 90 years.
So, unleash the globetrotter in you and travel all that you want to make the most of summer, but remember to invest in a smart travel insurance plan to stay stress-free all through the journey.
Reference Links:
1: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/indians-spent-10-billion-on-foreign-travel-in-april-december/articleshow/98072812.cms
2: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/no-of-indians-going-abroad-up-137-yet-to-hit-pre-covid-level/articleshow/96155846.cms