Findings from research by AA Travel have revealed that with gap-year travelers are making the mistake of taking travel insurance out simply because it is cheap. Now Trailfinders are advising gap-year travelers and backpackers to not base their choice on price alone.
By nature of their adventurous holidays, backpackers are different from normal holidaymakers and need a more tailor made travel-insurance policy. For example, one which covers the individual with a good quality 24-hour medical assistance helpline.
The research also found that the average gap-year traveler neglects to take any travel insurance at all and this is worrying considering that the average gap-year traveler's backpack contains £450 of personal possessions such as digital cameras, MP3 players and mobile phones, according to AA Travel. Gapyear.com statistics show that approximately 25% of young travelers go abroad without an adequate policy or any insurance at all.
Other research has showed another worrying trend in that gap-year students literally leave it to the last minute to choose their insurance policy, without thinking through which policy would best fit their circumstances. For example, travel insurance firm ACE discovered that almost 50% of its policyholders took out insurance less than a week before traveling.
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