Cruise Travel Insurance. Should The Cruise Industry Be More Involved?

[Cruising Kangaroo]

In December 2020, I sent an email to the Cruise Line International Association Australasia (CLIAA) as follows:

...Some cruise lines and some countries are now insisting that travellers hold fully inclusive travel insurance or give an undertaking that they will pay for any COVID-related medical treatment on the cruise or in that country, even if the affected passenger is offloaded on a scheduled or unscheduled port stop. Because no travel insurance policy will now cover Covid-19 treatment costs, this requirement effectively eliminates cruise travel or travel to those countries because of the risk of ruinous medical costs, potentially in the many tens of thousands of dollars. 

 

My proposal is that cruise lines arrange for industry-wide, bulk insurance cover for Covid-19-related medical treatment for cruise passengers (and crew).  All passengers would pay a reasonable premium and be covered. Normal travel insurance covers treatment for accidents and most illnesses other than Covid -19. 

 

The cruise industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and has the clout to do this. If the insurance companies will not co-operate, then the cruise industry should set up its own travel insurance company to achieve it. 

I received a polite reply as follows:

 

Thank you for your email and your ongoing support of cruise. Your suggestion is very topical as I know the cruise lines are already engaging with the insurance industry to understand how the future of travel insurance will look.  We will ensure that your email is forwarded to the relevant people.

It was almost impossible to obtain COVID travel insurance until late 2021 when a few insurance companies started to offer limited COVID cover but most if not all, excluded cruise passengers from cover, so little progress was made. Some companies briefly offered insurance for cruise passengers but this cover seems to have now been suspended since Omicron. 

 

In October 2021, I sent another email to the CLIAA as follows:

 

...In my earlier email, I suggested that your organisation and cruise lines in general should be lobbying (pressuring if you like) travel insurance providers to come up with travel insurance that suits cruise passengers. Currently, at least one travel insurance company is willing to offer travel insurance with (limited) COVID cover. However, their policy specifically excludes cruise passengers from this cover completely. I suspect that no company currently offers travel insurance that covers cruise passengers. 

It appears that little or no progress has been made on dealing with cruise travel insurance, which I find very disappointing. My wife and I have cruised extensively and have several cruises booked outside Australia. However, we simply cannot take these cruises without a reasonable amount of cover for COVID-related illness or consequential loss. The problems don't end there: If a cruise stops at a port that is in a country subject to "Do Not Travel" advice, travel insurance immediately becomes void, even if the passenger stays on the ship in port.

I repeat my earlier suggestion that your organisation and cruise lines need to do more to get travel insurance available for cruise passengers, even to the extent of cruise lines setting up a separate company specifically to provide travel insurance for cruise passengers. Without travel insurance for cruise passengers, there will be mass cancellations by passengers. We will be amongst them because we simply will not cruise without adequate travel insurance, both within Australia or outside. I acknowledge that the cruise industry is the CLIAA's focus, not the travel insurance industry, but without cruise travel insurance, the cruise industry will surely suffer a steep decline. 

Not much progress seems to have been made in this area in the last year.

This is not a criticism of the CLIAA but it appears to me that the cruise industry has not been sufficiently proactive in this area and needs to be much more involved with travel insurance providers in developing travel insurance products that meet the needs of cruise passengers. If this means that all cruise passengers pay a compulsory COVID travel insurance premium as an extra cost when booking, then I would support this concept. It would need to be only a relatively small extra cost when spread over all passengers, and would provide great peace of mind. Normal travel insurance could cover other non-COVID risks.