Big Freeze Warning to South African Travel Professionals

2 December 2010

The current big freeze in the UK and parts of Europe is yet another wake up call to travel professionals to protect their business and holiday travellers with ample protection – particularly in view of the exchange rate of the rand.

This comes on the back of equally unprecedented manufacturing defects in Rolls Royce engines.

"Ample protection for hotel accommodation and guarantees against long delays are essential to the traveller of today who are not being adequately insured against today's travel risks," says Uriah Jansen, MD of Oojah Travel Protection, new tailoring experts in the travel field underwritten by Hollard.

The problem is that the standard one-size-fits-all protections which are the current norm do not adequately cover the high financial risk that face today’s traveller whether for business or pleasure. We encourage travel agency professionals to use their strong and trusted positions to make sure their travel clients don’t have to sleep on cots in airports and that the risk of time delays is minimum. We believe that after 12 hours a traveller should have the option to cancel and get compensation.

"It is also essential that travel insurance is purchased at the same time as the airline ticket to obtain travel delay cover which is why travel agents need to be proactive. If a traveller tried to buy protection against the current 'big freeze' now, it would be like someone buying motor insurance after the accident."