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If
you travel outside your home country for business and pleasure, often,
the health care plans you may have in your own country are not designed
to provide coverage while you are out of the country. Whether you travel
for business or pleasure, international travel involves risk. A travel
insurance policy is a very good idea. It is possibly the best way to protect
you against medical costs through illness or injury, against theft or
loss of possessions and other accidences may occur during your travel
period. With this in mind, we recommend you to buy travel insurances which
provide exceptional coverage for international travelers. Cover depends
on the type of insurance you buy. You should inquire for details before
you decide to buy it. In addition, buy travel insurance as early as possible
before you start you travel. In China, better travel agencies may buy
insurance for their tourists.
China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) has issued a regulation in
May, 2001 which instructs all travel agencies to buy insurance for their
tourists, effective on Sep. 1st, 2001. According to the regulation, to
secure tourists' interests and legal rights, especially those traveling
to dangerous places, the National Tourism Administration issued a notice
to require all tourism agencies to buy "travel agencies' liability insurance."
This insurance policy will replace the original Personal Accidence Insurance
to be a new legal-based practice in China.
According to the notice, tourism agencies must compensate tourists, or
their dependents, for losses in the following situations:
If physical injury or death occurs, tourism agencies must shoulder related
costs of medicines, medical treatment, travel and accommodation charges;
They must shoulder losses if tourists' belongings are lost, shattered
or stolen;
They must shoulder all legal costs for their tourists if lawsuits are
brought against the agencies.
The administration also stipulated related compensation standards:
The limit for compensation to a tourist on domestic trips is set at 80,000
yuan (US$9,700); and 160,000 yuan (US$19,400) for a tourist traveling
overseas.
At the same time, the administration stipulated compensation limits for
tourism agencies.
A tourism agency's annual compensation must be within 2 million yuan (US$243,902)
if it is specialized in domestic trips, while an international tourism
agency's limit is 4 million yuan (US$487,804). If tourism agencies launch
highly risky travel services, they must co-ordinate with relevant insurance
companies about related compensation standards and limits.
This newly enacted regulation will definitely improve the travel security
environment in China.
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