Generali Global Assistance Continues to Facilitate the Return of Travel

Generali Global Assistance (“GGA”) continues to play a leading role in creating a seamless experience for travelers helping to protect them with variety of travel insurance and assistance solutions throughout 2021.  Continuing to grapple with a worldwide pandemic, ever changing vaccine rules, and drastic changes to travel trends, GGA maintained its commitment to care for its members and partners. 

Chris Carnicelli, CEO of General Global Assistance, commented: “After making it through a difficult 2020, we faced just as many challenges in 2021 and our team stepped up and really delivered.  We took steps to work with internationally recognized organizations to help our customers and to use our expertise to help plan for future pandemics.  Our concept of care is not limited to just our insureds, members, partners, and employees, - we also see care as applying to our role as a good global corporate citizen.”

International Partnerships

Early in 2021, GGA led the travel insurance and assistance industries by supporting smart vaccination and digital health pass initiatives in adding custom options to their Travel Insurance offerings and endorsing the Good Health Pass and the World Health Organization’s (“WHO”)  Smart Vaccination Certificate Working Group initiatives.  Successful implementation of these initiatives allowed travelers to verify their coverage prior to departure and give them an opportunity to update certain coverage limits, such as medical coverage, in accordance with the  country’s destination requirements. GGA also continued providing coverage for epidemic-related illnesses as a covered reason to cancel or interrupt a trip, along with coverage for emergency medical care, emergency medical transportation, change fees, and loyalty points redeposit fees.

In August, GGA announced its partnership with the Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation (“CAPSCA”).  Established in 2006 to bring together public and private aviation stakeholders for a coordinated approach to public health risks, CAPSCA is managed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (“ICAO”) with support from the World Health Organization. A leader in emergency medical transport, GGA supports CAPSCA’s mission of international cooperation at the public and private levels in all areas of aviation that might be affected by a public health event. GGA has also committed to contributing to raise awareness, sharing knowledge, best practices, support coordination, and assisting partners in difficult situations. As the world emerges from the current pandemic and prepares for future health crises, GGA plays an important role in providing resources and expertise to CAPSCA.

Enhancing Hurricane Resources

As the hurricane season started up, GGA enhanced its Hurricane Resources Center by adding new hurricane-related information and communication tools for use by its travel insurance and vacation rental protection partners. The updated resource center includes information kits to help partners prepare for and deal with a hurricane or tropical storm, should it impact their travelers or rental properties.

“We have found through our proprietary data and research that vacation rentals are on the rise, and that a significant number of these properties are in areas prone to hurricanes,” commented James Sion, COO of Generali Global Assistance.  “Providing dedicated hurricane resources was an important step in extending our care to property owners and their guests.”

Industry Leading Research

Over the past year, GGA has solidified their spot as the industry leader in travel related research.  From their annual Ipsos Holiday Barometer to working with Phocuswright to study the short-term rental market, GGA has developed data that fuels the travel market.  Harnessing these trends allows GGA to understand their customers and provide better, more robust tools.  One such tool GGA introduced last year was TripIQ which allows professional lodging partners to see clear, data driven insights around its travel insurance sales and conversion metrics. Additional dashboards provide benchmarking for partners so they can visualize their comparative performance against similar competitors in their target markets.

Sharing the Knowledge

Working within established safety protocols, the GGA Marketing Team was able to participate in over 60 in-person events in 2021 between exhibiting and sponsoring.  GGA also participated in countless virtual meetings, including several key collaborations with data providers like Ipsos and Phocuswright. 

“Our teams place high value on interacting with our partners in person and we have found safe, successful ways to do that this year. At the same time, we continued our virtual events, fully converting into a hybrid working model. Using this two-pronged approach – both in-person and virtual – we found we can maximize the efficiency and reach of our team,” commented Vladimir Poletaev, CMO of Generali Global Assistance.