Some hotels and regions offer free insurance protection against the risks of corona infection
Madrid – Some large hotel chains are trying to reactivate international tourism by offering their guests free insurance that covers the risks currently associated with corona infection while on vacation. This includes the costs associated with a possible quarantine and return to the home country. Some even offer more extensive all-round health care for an additional fee.
“Everything that offers tourists security and protection on vacation is positive,” said Jorge Marichal, President of the Spanish Association of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (Cehat), welcoming the initiative, which was also taken up by some autonomous regions.
The pandemic crisis has hit Spanish tourism hard. While 58.2 million holidaymakers came to the country in the first eight months of 2019, there were only a good 15 million in the same period of the current year. The prospects for the coming months are also miserable, which is why eight out of ten hotels are currently closed, according to the Cehat. This has a particularly strong impact in areas where tourism is the main engine of the economy, such as the Andalusian coast, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands. For some of these places, autumn is the main season, including golf tourism and the senior trips from Imserso, which have been canceled. The demand has collapsed.
In order to counteract this situation, the industry is trying to create incentives for those who still want and can travel. One of them is medical care. The Soho Boutique Hotels hotel chain, for example, which operates over twenty hotels in Spain and 46 worldwide, works with Europ Assistance and offers its guests insurance cover that includes services from medical treatment to their return home at no extra cost.
Vincci Hoteles, with 29 hotels across Spain, works with Quirónsalud and has taken out insurance for its guests, which provides medical advice around the clock for any type of health problem. Further examinations and treatments that result from this are then carried out at the patient’s expense. The Barceló Hotel Group offers remote medical advice on similar terms, which has been very well received by guests.
For the autonomous region of Andalusia, the tourism minister there, Juan Marín, has announced that all tourists who come from January 1st will be insured. And the Canary Islands have also insured tourists visiting the region with Axa Seguros. The Canary Islands government is having this protection cost 450,000 euros, which in the event of an infection with the coronavirus covers the costs of medical care, an extended stay due to quarantine and the return journey.
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