To successfully enjoy the planned time for recreation and have the potential losses and injuries covered by insurance policy, people should reserve time to include a thorough study of insurance risk covers in their travel planning, emphasize BTA Baltic Insurance Company AAS (BTA), revealing that the largest indemnity paid for head injury while skiing during spring last year reached as much as 87 thousand euros.

“When making choices among insurance covers, especially for longer trips, an important thing is to pay attention to a variety of nuances, so that the anticipated recreation would bring only nice moments. Therefore our insurance specialists are ready to explain to our customers all the nuances of a particular insurance cover in detail – what is covered by such a policy, and what are exceptions to its cover,” advises Oskars Zvejnieks, BTA Personal Insurance Product Manager, emphasizing that insured events can be very specific and different.

One should understand the differences between luggage insurance covers – whether luggage has got lost while at the disposal of the customer, or delayed due to the fault of carriers; and what are the goods of first necessity the purchase of which that would in such cases be covered by the policy. “Clarification of such potential situations to buyers of insurance policies is a complicated task, therefore it is best done by insurance filed specialists, outlining all the probable cases,” O.Zvejnieks is assured.

Insurance policy costs are relatively low for such cases, whereas the volume of indemnity claims made and the quantity of various insured events – high; a variety of small, though, annoying troubles often tend to occur to travellers, able to ruin the much anticipated vacation nearly inasmuch as illnesses or injuries.

“Largest losses while travelling always are related to health problems, although the situation in this case is usually clearer to customers. We have had a case of insurance claim made from Switzerland for 75 thousand euros, when the health of a customer suddenly deteriorated. An even larger amount – 87 thousand euros – was paid for a heavy injury, sustained, while skiing at the Alps in the spring of last year. There are no questions of whether yes or no – insurers must cover it,” says O. Zvejnieks.

An important aspect to consider is what type of vehicle the traveller is going to use – own car, airline, or as a member of a group tour by bus. “This aspect decides – which risks should be insured. For instance, when going for skiing to Italy by own car makes flight delay or cancellation risk insurance redundant. Although, medical assistance risk inclusion apparently is mandatory,” reminds O. Zvejnieks.

The total volume of travel insurance indemnities paid in Latvia in 2019 has increased by 51%, compared to the same period in 2018. The volume of gross premiums written in this insurance type last year accounted for 2.5 million euros, which is by 12% more than in 2018.

About BTA

BTA Baltic Insurance Company is one of the leading insurance companies in the Baltics, offering the broadest range of non-life insurance services in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. BTA employs more than 1,000 employees in the Baltics. The largest shareholder of BTA is Vienna Insurance Group AG with close to 200 years of experience in the insurance business. With about 50 companies in 25 countries and more than 25,000 employees, Vienna Insurance Group is a clear market leader in its CEE markets. Vienna Insurance Group is the best-rated company of ATX, the leading index of Vienna Stock Exchange with a rating of A+ with stable outlook from Standard & Poor’s; its share is also listed on the Prague Stock Exchange.

Additional information:

Elīna Rasmane

Marketing and Public Relations Department Director

BTA Baltic Insurance Company AAS

e-mail elina.rasmane@bta.lv