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29 March 2024

More than half of UAE residents never purchase travel insurance: Survey

Published
By Wam

More than half of UAE residents admit they never purchase travel insurance when they go abroad, according to research released today by Zurich.

In a survey of 748 UAE residents conducted by YouGov, 58 per cent of residents report that they never purchase travel insurance for their trips, while a third (32 per cent) say they only occasionally do so.

Arab expats (67 per cent) are the most likely to travel abroad without insurance, followed by Asian expats (43 per cent).

Almost a third (30 per cent) of those who never buy insurance explain that their reasoning is based on a belief that they will never need to claim, while nearly a quarter (24 per cent) say that they do need travel insurance. Approximately one in ten (13 per cent) respondents also report that they do not purchase their own travel insurance as they are covered by their work insurance policy.

Zurich cautions that this could be a costly mistake since corporate travel policies are often limited to the GCC and rarely cover travel inconvenience, such as lost baggage or delayed flights.

Just one in ten (11 per cent) UAE residents say they always purchase travel insurance when heading overseas. This figure is extremely low when you consider that in mature markets, such as the US, Canada, Europe and Australia, around 60-70 per cent of people who buy an air ticket will also buy travel insurance.

More than half (56 per cent) of respondents who always purchase travel insurance say it gives them peace of mind.

Cover for medical expenses (39 per cent while overseas is deemed to be another significant motivation for purchase and this is particularly pronounced where medical costs are perceived to be high, as in the USA, says Zurich.

For those respondents who sometimes take out travel insurance, their single biggest consideration is the destination of the trip (45 per cent), followed closely by the cost of the trip (35 per cent).

According to the Zurich survey, the most common claims for those residents who do take out travel insurance policies are lost or stolen luggage (48 per cent), lost or stolen possessions (45 per cent), medical expenses (33 per cent) and missed or delayed flights (28 per cent).