UOB Travel Planners' Steven Ler (left) and QBE Singapore's Goh Shun Quan share their perspectives on the right insurance coverage for risk management.
The pandemic has made it necessary to pre-plan a lot more before a
business trip, even more so for planners of corporate meetings, training
workshops, incentive groups or conferences. A proper risk management
plan prioritises the right insurance coverage. Besides travel insurance,
Covid-related insurance is also included to account for the many
evolving factors at play.
UOB
Travel Planners, which manages corporate travellers as well as plans MICE events
for its clients, underwrites their insurance policies with an insurance
partner to provide comprehensive coverage. There are different tiers of
coverage to meet corporate needs. Emergency evacuation is one of them,
which is a top priority in pandemic times.
“We have been anticipating all these changes with the onset of
Covid, and we have really focused on providing the proper coverage.
We've also been working with medical facilities locally and overseas to
make sure that we can help our customers with end-to-end testing
requirements. This was very essential during the last two years in
managing the needs of our clients,” said Steven Ler, Executive Director
of UOB Travel Planners.
Ler also shared that UOB Travel Planners works with security agencies such as
International SOS to ensure its clients are protected for any possible
emergency. This includes the use of an app installed with a panic button
that will activate an emergency team to provide on the ground
assistance.
“It
is important to provide holistic end-to-end travel support as we continue to navigate the evolving travel landscape. Giving customers a sense of assurance
and comfort that things will be taken care underscores everything we
do,” said Ler.
Echoing his sentiment is Goh Shun Quan, Head of Underwriting, Retail
& SME at QBE Singapore, “Corporate clients require fast turnaround
and ease of insurance administration either done by themselves, or their
intermediary of choice.
"What this means is that insurers need to find a way to facilitate
immediate issuance of policy and claims management which operates 24/7
(such as a digital platform) so customers can access and manage their
own policy and insurance needs easily.”
Goh added that businesses are more concerned with Covid-related
emergencies and expenses that may arise from hospitals, quarantine and
medical/evacuation costs and repatriation. “While travel cancellation
costs remain a concern, they have become less important as hotels and
travel operators increasingly offer flexible cancellation policies for
travel bookings,” he noted.
Ler reported a strong 40% to 50% increase month over month in corporate travel bookings and said that it remains vital for UOB Travel Planners to take care of clients’ constantly changing requirements. This is important as its clients are going to long-haul destinations such as the US, the UK and other parts of Europe.
For these corporate groups from the healthcare, finance, insurance
and manufacturing sectors, proper risk management will be a key deciding
factor for their continued travels.