Primary's John Bibby says the FSA has a big enough task regulating the industry to deal with travel agents as well.
Primary is perhaps unusual in having a broad personal lines distribution strategy which includes both direct sell of travel insurance and sale through a variety of intermediaries including the travel industry.
Rather than create conflict this is simply a case of following diverse customer demand. Whatever the direct insurance writers may think (or choose to publicise), the reality is that the majority of travel insurance is still transacted at the point of purchasing travel i.e. controlled by the travel industry.
Whilst it is, in many cases true that travel industry point of sale procedures, pricing models and marketing strategies need review and improvement, I firmly believe that if the travel industry were no longer able to promote travel insurance at the point of purchasing travel there would be a vast increase in the number of uninsured travellers.
Travel insurance being seen almost as a "tax" on travel, but a necessity, when the booking agent points out the risks and policy benefits (in a compliant manner). If this did not happen at the point of booking travel, how many package tour travellers would go to the trouble of phoning a direct insurer?
I appreciate all the arguments about "level playing fields", however the reality is that the job that the FSA faces in regulating the personal lines industry is big enough (too big for GISC it would seem). The cost and resource required to also start regulating the travel industry at the same time would be simply impossible.
At Primary we work closely with our travel industry clients to ensure product design, point of sale processes and marketing strategies that are both clear and fair. We do this keeping in mind the interests of all parties but always remembering that a dissatisfied customer will ultimately damage all parties interests.
The travel industry has been granted a window of opportunity between now and 2007 whilst the FSA gets to grips with the rest of the personal lines market.
If the travel industry is smart, which in the main I believe it is, it will use this time wisely and work only with specialist insurance suppliers who will work closely with travel companies and their front line staff to ensure that customer satisfaction is as high from this "unregulated" product as all other "regulated" personal lines products.
