One in five still travelling without insurance
Wednesday, 05 October 2011 11:18
New figures from travel association Abta have shown that one in five holidaymakers head abroad with inadequate levels of insurance.
According to the organisation, travellers without proper cover run the risk of racking up huge medical bills.
Abta claims that the alarming figure shows that despite high-profile cases of travel disasters appearing in the press, insurance warnings are going unheeded.
Abta said that travellers should book travel insurance at the same time as they book their trip and should consider the cover required to help cover their costs if they were made redundant as well as any potential illness contracted before their trip.
In its 2011 ABTA Consumer Trends survey, the association noted that 21 per cent mistakenly believe that the UK government will foot the bill if something goes wrong, while 17 per cent thought insurance was unnecessary when travelling in Europe.
John de Vial, Abta head of financial protection said: "It is very worrying that so many people are putting their health and finances at risk by travelling abroad without insurance."
Recently, ABTA showed that around half of UK holidaymakers book their annual vacation through a high street travel agent or tour operator.
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