Despite ubiquitous news surrounding the capsizing of the Costa Concordia, travel insurance sales did not get the same boost ignited by other recent travel hazards.
Travel insurance providers and the U.S. Travel Insurance Association (USTIA) said that events like the ash cloud, which paralyzed travel to and from much of Europe in spring 2010, and major snowstorms, generated more interest.
“Compared to the ash cloud, calls regarding the Concordia, and [the earthquake in Japan] are relatively low,” said a spokesperson for the USTIA. “Events like the ash cloud and major snowstorms that are likely to impact air travelers usually generate the most calls. However, any time there is an event, there is usually some increased interest in travel insurance.”
This was echoed by insurance suppliers.
“While this unfortunate accident has put heightened awareness on cruising and travel insurance, we do not have any data that shows this one particular incident has been the sole factor in any uptick in sales,” said Carol Mueller, vice president of Travel Guard International.
The company said it had a “handful” of clients aboard, all of whom have been accounted for.
Access America also said it had not seen an increase in sales or inquiries.
“Perhaps more importantly, we have not seen a decrease in purchases, which means travelers are still booking travel at the same rate they did before the accident,” said Daniel Durazo, director of communications for Access America.
Travel Insured International did note an uptick in inquiries but not necessarily from concerned travelers: They mostly came from the press and travel industry partners.
“Every event tends to generate an awareness of why a traveler should always purchase travel insurance,” said Judith Sutton, vice president of product management for Travel Insured. “It would be difficult to quantify the specific impact of the Concordia incident.”
Insurance suppliers were busy immediately following the Concordia accident, locating and assisting their customers who were on the ship and in some cases helping others who weren’t.
In this situation, travel agency relationships with insurers also went a long way. Both Access America and Travel Guard contacted their agency partners to inquire about their customers and ended up assisting clients who had not purchased travel insurance, arranging for transportation and lodging and helping with lost passports.
“We reached out to our travel agency partners and let them know that if they had clients on the ship, we were willing to do whatever we could to help them, regardless of whether they had purchased our insurance,” Durazo said.
Access America had nine customers onboard, all of whom were accounted for.
Durazo said that in the Concordia situation, travel assistance was the most important service it was able to provide.
Insurers said that as far as filing claims, insured Concordia passengers will not have much to ask for from the insurance companies since Costa Cruises said it would refund passengers for the cruise as well as reimburse their travel expenses to get home.
“If customers had a loss that was not reimbursed by the cruise line, we would encourage them to file a claim,” Durazo said.
Follow Johanna Jainchill on Twitter @jjainchilltw.