INDEPENDENT travel agents will be better placed than multiples to cope with tougher regulations on the way travel insurance is sold, argues Bailey’s Travel managing director Chris Bailey.
He admitted travel agents have not been good at selling travel insurance.
They charge ’embarrassingly’ high premiums and add it to the sale of a holiday without knowing about the product, but Bailey said this will change under the General Insurance Standards Council.
The GISC, a voluntary body being set up to oversee the way travel insurance is sold, plans to start signing members from February next year.
Under the proposals, all travel agents will have to join.
“I welcome being told that travel insurance should be regulated because we ought to have a greater sense of responsibility about the product, but it will be more difficult to sell,” Bailey added.
“Independents will be in a better position than the multiples to make sure their staff have proper training. The GISC could be good news for us.”
Bailey added that while he welcomed the GISC, he would have liked to have been consulted about the way it will operate.
“Travel agents are the silent majority. We sell 66% of travel insurance, and while the GISC might not come to talk to Bailey’s Travel, I suspect no-one has spoken to Lunn Poly and Going Places either,” Bailey said.
“I would have expected ABTA and our travel insurance provider to do more.”
ABTA head of finance Mike Monk said the association was holding regular meetings with GISC chief executive Chris Woodburn and had written to members about the new body.
He added: “Our members are bombarded with paper work and we know it doesn’t all get read.
“But we also know this is a very important issue and we are doing something about it.”