The economic stimulus package that was announced last week was a welcome step towards invigorating the domestic tourism sector and cushioning the negative economic effects of the Covid-19 outbreak.
While this will encourage Malaysians to start making cuti-cuti plans, in between booking flights, the right hotel and fun excursions, there is one key item that is easily overlooked or forgotten – local travel insurance.
While we often assume that all travel plans will go without hitch, there’s nothing worse than plans unravelling due to some unforeseen circumstance. Getting caught in a difficult situation while travelling can be stressful, especially when you’re already on a budget. This is where travel insurance comes in, but the issue is the misconceptions around it.
To help demystify some of these misconceptions, here are a few examples.
- I have life, medical and car insurance, I’m practically over-insured! Since I’m not leaving the country, why purchase travel insurance?
- Travel insurance is distinctive from other types of insurance you may have. For example, travel insurance protects you against inconveniences such as lost luggage, flight delay compensation and even the cost for emergency medical evacuation and repatriation
- If you’re driving down to Penang for a makan trip with your family, did you know that your car insurance may not cover your passengers from accident-related injuries? The good news is local travel insurance will
- Local travel insurance also includes personal accident and medical coverage up to the limit of your plan and can act as a buffer, so you won’t need to claim from your current life and medical insurance.
- Everything will be fine lah! Plus, I don’t want to think of negative things that could happen on my trip, its bad luck
- The funny thing with life is that it throws curveballs when you least expect it. They don’t call it the best-laid plans for nothing.
- We understand that insurance can be a heavy topic, but what might be heavier is that hefty bill incurred from an incident you can’t claim for because it’s excluded from your other insurance policies.
- It’s expensive!
- It actually isn’t. Malaysians are sorely underinsured and one of the reasons is because of assumed costs
- Local travel insurance policies can be as affordable as two Starbucks Venti coffees. For example, Aspirasi Travel Local costs only RM25 for a return trip and is totally customizable to your travel itinerary. It also has an option for individual or family/group plans
- With the current COVID-19 outbreak on everyone’s mind, you might be wary about travelling, but fret not as Aspirasi Travel Local also comes with COVID-19 coverage so you’re protected no matter where you go to jalan-jalan cari makan!
Overall, travel insurance should be an important purchase decision while you’re travelling, even domestically to ensure you and your family are properly protected. For that peace of mind on your trip, can you really put a price to that?
For more information, head over to insure.aspirasi.co for a full list of its insurance offerings.
This article is attributed to Manzur Rahman, Director of Marketing, Customer Experience and Innovation at Aspirasi
Header image: Tourism Malaysia
