What do you think it is? Your camera, tablet, maybe even your lucky socks?
It’s your travel insurance and new findings have discovered an alarming 25 per cent of all Australian’s are heading overseas without it!
So, what can happen when your head off in to the big wide world without protection? With half of all Aussie travellers having made a claim on their travel insurance at some point, it’s unsurprising to find that those of us choosing not to be covered are collectively out of pocket a whopping $3.6 million annually. Aside from risking their health and wellbeing, research conducted by Galaxy Research has revealed travel misfortunes are also leaving them an average of $850 out of pocket when something goes wrong. By comparison, in many cases for short trips the cost of insurance would be less than a quarter of this price.
According to the research, the most common unexpected holiday expenses are:
Emergency medical (average cost $941)
Accidents (average cost $978)
Theft (average cost $813)
Loss of personal belongings (average cost $570)
Damage to personal belongings (average cost $452)
Generation Y is the most likely to travel without insurance, according to the research findings, with 51 per cent failing to take out a policy before heading overseas.
Men are also more likely than women to go away uninsured, with 45 per cent of Aussie blokes surveyed admitting they have not take out travel insurance.
When you’re in a distressing situation in a foreign country, the last thing you want to be worrying about is how you will cover the bills.
The message is simple, if you can’t afford travel insurance you can’t afford to travel.