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The Association of Travel Insurance Intermediaries (ATII) has put its weight behind Abta’s efforts to make travel insurance more accessible through travel agents.
The organisation said it shares Abta’s concerns about young travellers failing to take out insurance to cover their trips.
ATII chairman, Kate Huet, called for an industry-wide educational effort to raise awareness of the risks.
The association joined Abta in demanding a closer examination of restrictions that regulation has imposed on agents to ensure that their clients have adequate protection under a travel insurance policy.
The government should reconsider restrictions imposed agents to give them have a more active role in raising consumer awareness over the need take take out insurance when travelling.
Huet said: “We wholly support Abta in their aim to allow travel agents to become more actively involved.
“Our members support many of the larger travel agency groups, yet the market is full of small businesses for whom the cost of regulation is prohibitive and their focus is on the sale of the holiday and not the required protection for the traveller.
“The younger audience need to understand the risk they are taking when they choose not to purchase insurance. An industry-wide education project which the entire Travel Industry should embrace is much needed.
“It is a question of accessibility and priority. Travel Insurance needs to be far higher up the pre-holiday shopping list in the mind of this audience and ease of purchase needs to be achieved in order for barriers to be removed.”