The travel insurance business in Australia had its worst year ever last year, with the cutbacks in global travel and constant disruption to domestic travel because of Covid-19.Cover-More, which has some 40 per cent of the Australian travel insurance market and operates in 17 countries, saw its business fall off a cliff with the outbreak of Covid-19 in March — its $US1bn ($1.3bn) a year in revenues down by almost 90 per cent overnight.This, and the decision to refund travel insurance premiums last year for people whose trips were cancelled, sent the company into the red, forcing it to lay off about a third of its 2300-strong global staff.But Morton, who has been ­effectively running the Sydney-based global travel insurance company since April last year, says the company has been using the time to develop new products for the traveller once the borders open up — travellers who will be more conscious about the need for insurance policies and want to know more information about the risks they face when trav­elling.“People will start travelling again,” she says in an interview with The Weekend Australian at Cover-More’s North Sydney head office.“So we just have to ride the wave.”In normal times, she says, companies are flat out handling normal day-to-day business.“At the moment travel is down and we have this pause, but let’s not waste the time,” she says.“Rather than counting the days until travel starts again, we need to make the days count.”While travel by Australians is still down considerably due to Covid-19 restrictions, Cover-More has already launched new policies designed to cover the pressures and risks of a Covid-19 world.These include new policies to cover domestic travellers if they incur non-medical costs due to them or their travelling companion getting Covid-19, such as trip cancellation or trip interruption or extra accommodation costs.While it has new Covid-19 policies for those few Australians who are travelling overseas for ­essential purposes, Morton says the group is now working with its underwriters, including its parent Zurich Insurance, to develop Covid-19 world products for general travellers once the ­borders open up again. At the ­moment its cover for Covid-19-related expenses for global travellers do not apply to those countries where there is a federal government “do not travel” ­warning.Morton says the global traveller of the future will be far more engaged with the details of their travel insurance policies than ever before and will want a lot more information about the risks of travel and what assistance is available to them.“We are creating a leisure travel assistance app we are going to launch in the next quarter which gives travellers a lot more information,” she says.It will include an emergency assistance button travellers can press if they need help, to be ­answered on a 24/7 basis.It will also provide travellers with much more localised information about potential risks wherever they are.“We want to give the traveller more information so they make better decisions,” she says.Another product being developed will allow travellers to expand their insurance cover during their trip. If they go to Bali and find themselves wanting to ride motor­bikes, for example, they can opt to take out more coverage for the period they might be riding them.“When people start back travelling, people are going to want so much more information,” she says.Morton, whose group has strong links with travel company Flight Centre, says it is already evident that when people are booking travel, even within ­Australia, they are buying more insurance.But the pandemic has severely hit the business, with Cover-More’s total global revenues for 2020 down by more than $700m.Its revenues in Australia are only running at 5 per cent of what they were before the pandemic.Business is better in North America, where its sales are running at 10-15 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.“There’s a lot more domestic travel in North America,” she says. “But globally we have started the year with our business right down compared to where we were last year.”Morton has a strong love of travel herself. “I have kayaked on seven continents, including Antarctica,” she says. Born in Brisbane, she completed a degree in minerals processing at the University of Queensland, but did not practice in the mining industry.She joined the consulting firm now known as Accenture in 1991, to get a chance to join its training program in Chicago.Morton then worked with the company on projects around the world, including in China, India, London, Munich and the US.Her 24-year-career with Accenture involved a four-year stint in Hong Kong.The role gave her first-hand experience with Australian companies operating on a global stage.She joined QBE in 2017 as group head of operations and head of transformation and change, before moving to Cover-More in mid-2018, recruited by its former chief executive, Mike Emmett, who she knew from their days together at QBE.Morton ran Cover-More’s global travel assistance program, learning first-hand the challenges of helping Australians in trouble overseas, until she was asked in April last year to take over as chief executive. She was announced as interim chief executive of Cover-More in June and made the permanent CEO in November.Morton says the challenge for CEOs managing companies hard hit by the pandemic is to provide staff with a vision of how the business will come out of Covid-19.She says 2020 was a tough year for Cover-More’s staff, now down to about 1600 around the world, who saw many of their colleagues leave roles such as claims handling and customer service because of the sharp fall-off in the travel insurance business.“As a chief executive you need to focus on what your strategy is to come out of this pandemic and communicate with people that there is a future for their organisation,” she says. “When you have been as heavily disrupted as we have in the travel space, you have to have your vision for the company and a story. “People have got to understand their role in it so they are excited about the future.”Morton says corporate leaders managing businesses through the pandemic need to be agile, responding quickly with new products to cope with changing consumer demands and circumstances.In Latin America, Cover-More is now offering a new product to hotels, offering medical cover for guests who might get sick with Covid-19 while they are staying there.Morton says this gives the ­hotels a marketing opportunity to sell themselves to travellers in a world living with Covid-19.She says Cover-More and other travel insurance companies are closely watching the evolving situation with Covid-19, including the rollout of vaccines around the world.But so far there are no clear ­answers on what it could mean for travel insurance, including whether people might get ­discounts if they have been vaccinated.“There will be a lot of pent-up demand once the borders open,” Morton says.“But there will be a lot of points which need to be clarified. Even if you have the vaccine, can you still be a carrier?“It is great that Qantas has come out and said it will be opening up its international routes from the middle of the year, but there’s still a lot more work that needs to be done with government entities around the world to understand what it means to ­travel.“What is it going to take for there to be no quarantine when you come back? There are a lot of questions which need to be ­answered.”Morton is closely watching the situation in the US, where president-elect Joe Biden has promised to deliver 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office. “What else has to be done in North America for it to be safe to travel?” she says.Morton says Cover-More is having to evolve its policies constantly to meet changing circumstances working with their underwriters on the details of new policies as they assess the changing risks.Morton, who oversees businesses in Britain, Europe, North America, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, says the business benefits from information from their operations around the world.“The size of our organisation allows is to pivot quite well,” she says. “We are able to share information. Some regions are experiencing things at a different pace than others. It’s really good ­having a network to share product development ideas across the region.“We have this opportunity now to improve the travel experience. We need to make the days count.”



Source link