The everyday traveler can get a lot of benefits from typical travel insurance. But business travelers and frequent international travelers can sometimes require protections that standard coverage doesn’t include.
If you are someone who travels regularly for work, you may want to consider investing in business travel insurance or even travel accident insurance. Let’s take a look at the differences between these two insurance policy types and when they can be useful.
Business Travel Insurance
Business travel insurance can be a supplement to or a replacement for standard travel insurance. While most travel insurance policies cover things like unexpected medical expenses and trip cancellations, business travel insurance policies include more specific provisions that protect the particular needs of business travelers.
For example, if a tourist’s bags don’t arrive with them, that can be a big inconvenience. But if a business traveler’s bags don’t arrive, that could mean that they need to scrap the whole trip. This might be the case if the business traveler’s bags had all of their presentation materials or a prototype that they were going to share with investors in person.
A business traveler might also need more specific protections to travel at specific times in order to attend a conference, for example.
Sometimes business travelers have to travel to locations that aren’t as safe as typical tourist destinations. In such cases, emergency evacuation coverage for non-medical reasons can be important.
Most travel business insurance also covers unexpected medical emergencies. If your company is covering the costs of business travel insurance, then you certainly shouldn’t turn it down. If the expense falls to you, then you need to weigh the possible effects and costs of your trip getting canceled or delayed and/or the safety of the place you’re traveling to decide whether business traveler insurance is worth the cost.
Travel Accident Insurance
Travel accident insurance is a very specific type of travel insurance that covers accidental death and dismemberment. It can also cover emergency evacuations, repatriation, and 24/7 travel assistance services. Essentially, travel accident insurance is a life insurance policy for travelers while they’re abroad.
If you already have life insurance, it might cover these same benefits. With either policy, you need to be sure that the insurance will cover you in the specific location that you plan to visit.
While travel accident insurance is usually a bad investment for the average traveler, it can be a wise choice for people with high-risk travel jobs such as war correspondents, government employees, and missionary/aid workers.
To learn more about these types of insurance policies, talk to your insurance provider. We can offer some helpful tips, but insurance isn’t our area of expertise. What we can help you with is last minute travel visas and passports. No matter where you’re going, we can help ensure that your travel documents are ready to go in time.
