Travel During COVID-19

Applied Warranty & Insurance Services Steps in to help travel partners navigate COVID-19 disruptions.

The last few years will leave a lasting impression on us all, but for the travel and tourism industry, COVID-19 was particularly harsh. The industry came to a screeching halt as the pandemic ravaged nations, forcing them to impose travel restrictions to reduce the spread of the virus. The travel industry experienced unprecedented decreases in travelers, resulting in cancelled flights and hotel reservations and disruptions to other hospitality and tourism businesses worldwide. Airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and travel insurance companies felt the financial effects almost immediately.

Applied Warranty and Insurance Services quickly reached out to our travel insurance partners to offer guidance and start working on solutions to combat the effects of COVID-19 on their businesses. We worked with each partner one-on-one to implement new practices and procedures, from developing specific underwriting guidelines to offering future travel credits or premium refunds. As the novel virus continued throwing new obstacles at our partners, we expanded our partner outreach by helping them with critical activities such responding to their customers’ need for up-to-date information.

When COVID-19 began to ease, countries slowly and cautiously opened their borders to travelers, prompting a new set of challenges for the industry such as countries imposing conflicting entry requirements to mitigate spikes in COVID-19 cases. In addition to requiring negative test results for travelers, countries wanted to ensure travelers were financially prepared to travel and could be responsible for their own financial obligations if they contracted the virus while visiting. Notably, Costa Rica implemented the strictest requirements, setting limits of medical coverage and requiring accommodation benefits if quarantine was required. The team quickly developed products for partners to ensure they could meet the entry requirements of these countries while providing valuable protection for their customers’ travel plans.

As the world slowly returns to some sense of normalcy and the travel industry begins to recover financially, Applied Warranty & Insurance Services' partners remain confident in our support of their business as we continue to collaborate and develop strategies to handle their customers’ travel needs.

Learn more about our travel insurance solutions.