More than half of Russians always use travel insurance

Summer is the time for vacations, and many people plan trips around Russia and abroad during this time. The experts of the insurance broker Mains have learned about the attitude of Russians towards the insurance of risks that may occur during travel. The results were reviewed by Izvestia on May 28.

More than half of the survey participants (56%) reported that they always buy travel insurance. About a quarter (24.5%) do this before traveling abroad, one in eight (12.4%) — when traveling in Russia, and one in five (19.1%) — when traveling both inside and outside the country. Slightly more than a third (34%) of respondents specified that they never buy insurance, except in cases when it is mandatory.

Another 10% of respondents said that they had not been insured before, but they began to do so without fail after an insured event occurred during their vacation. Only 38.5% of the survey participants did not have insurance at the time of the incident, while the rest had policies: 23% of them covered all expenses incurred, 27% covered only part of the expenses, and 11.5% of the insurers recognized the cases as uninsured and refused to pay.

"At the same time, approximately one in eight respondents (13%) does not study the terms of the insurance contract. 39.8% said they study the contract before signing it, 24.2% after signing it, and 16% only after the insured event occurs," the experts noted.

Many survey participants say they are interested in purchasing additional insurance when traveling in Russia. Insurance against flight delays or cancellations turned out to be the most popular (15.9% of respondents named it), medical insurance covering expenses not provided for in compulsory medical insurance (14.4%), and insurance against damage or loss of luggage (11.1% of respondents choose it). Insurance against being late for a flight through no fault of their own (5%), failure by the tour operator or the hotel to fulfill its obligations (3.5%), risk of becoming a victim of theft, fraud or other crime (2.2%), failure to check into the hotel on time or refusal to check in (1.6%), damage or loss of documents (1.5%), threats of UAVs (0.7%) and in case of natural disasters (0.7%). Another 1.3% reported that they were involved in extreme sports, so they needed additional insurance.

The most popular type of insurance in the whole country (against flight delays or cancellations) is slightly more relevant for Muscovites than for Petersburgers: 23.2% versus 18.3%. It was mentioned most often in Kazan (22.7%) and Samara (17.6%), less often in Ufa (6%), Krasnodar (8.5%) and Volgograd (10%). But the lowest percentage of votes for this type of insurance is in Perm, where none of the survey participants mentioned it.

In addition, it turned out that St. Petersburg residents refuse additional insurance significantly more often than Muscovites — 41.3% versus 31.6%. The share of those who do not need insurance when traveling in Russia is highest in Ufa (68%), Krasnodar (59.6%) and Perm (57.7%), the lowest in Novosibirsk (31.5%), Kazan (37.1%) and Voronezh (37.8%).

Earlier, on May 14, Vladimir Neronov, MD, an infectious disease specialist at JSC "Medicine" (Academician Roitberg Clinic), told Izvestia about the importance of vaccinations when planning a vacation abroad. He warned that there are diseases specific to specific regions where entry may be prohibited without a vaccination certificate.