All you need to know about contingency management, tour cancellation, and travel insurance coverage.

The World is buzzing as international travel has resumed over the last few months and schools everywhere are gearing up for overseas trips. While we at ABBEY Language Travel couldn’t be more excited about this, we also know this means a lot of questions and concerns coming from school boards and parents about Covid-19 contingency management, cancellation and refund conditions, and travel insurance coverage in general. So without further ado, let’s dig into this matter.

CHECKLIST FOR TRAVELING IN COVID TIMES

Traveling in Covid times as a school group means you need to prepare thoroughly, make sure every detail gets full attention and every possible contingency gets addressed.

Some of ABBEY’s thorough trip preparation protocols include:

• Only offering tours to countries that are labeled ‘safe to travel’ by the Australian and New Zealand Travel Advisory bodies (Smart Traveler for Australia and Safe Travel for New Zealand). We recommend registering your email address to receive updates from these services to make sure you are kept informed of any disruptions or changes in both your country and the destination country travel advisory status.

• Designing a travel itinerary with risk management in mind to avoid the most common travel risks. We, for instance, recommend avoiding itineraries involving ‘hoping around’ several varied destinations as these could become a logistical conundrum in the event that one or more trip participants got infected with Covid and require isolation for instance. We also recommend securing a local representative or partner such as a host school to help with local knowledge and support in case Covid-related issues occur during the tour.

•  Having a thorough Covid Contingency Plan taking into consideration all potential risks on the itinerary and offering a clear and pre-approved risk-avoiding and problem-solving protocol that teachers can rely on. ABBEY will provide this document together with the general Risk Assessment Manual in the early stages of the tour preparation.

• Communicating clearly and regularly with parents and students to make sure all involved parties are fully informed of the potential risks and understand/approve of responses. ABBEY assists in this task by providing Risk Assessment Manuals, detailed Information Packs, pre-departure Excursion Manuals outlining trip details, and organizing a comprehensive pre-departure meeting where parents and students can ask questions. Additionally, the school board and Accompanying Teachers have access to a unique hotline for any urgent matters or questions, both before and during the trip.

• Securing a Comprehensive Travel Insurance for the group that will provide extensive coverage for all traveling participants in case Covid-related disruptions happen both before and during the trip.

PRECISELY, WHAT DOES COMPREHENSIVE GROUP TRAVEL INSURANCE COVER?

It can be hard to plan an overseas school trip after a pandemic. Parents have a lot of questions, particularly about insurance coverage. Let’s take a look at the most common questions that have arisen:

Will tour participants be covered if they contract Covid-19 before the trip and need to cancel participation?

Yes, prepaid trip costs up to a determined benefit limit (check your group policy details) will be covered.

Will tour participants be covered if they contract Covid-19 during the trip?

Yes, the cover is available if a tour participant is diagnosed with COVID-19 and requires medical treatment overseas or needs to self-isolate under adult supervision. Quarantine-related costs such as additional hotel nights or travel rebooking for instance will be included under the coverage. Make sure you read the insurance policy details thoroughly and are informed of coverage and inclusions (ABBEY will assist with insurance/coverage-related questions).

Will tour participants be covered if the destination country suddenly closes its borders due to a surge in Covid cases and the tour must be canceled as a result?

Travelers affected by country-wide government restrictions such as border closures (as seen in 2020) are not covered by the insurance in case they have to cancel or modify their trip. This information must be considered in light of the fact the Covid pandemic has now entered a more endemic phase, which means that sudden changes in border or travel policies are a lot more unlikely. ABBEY will closely monitor any travel destination update both domestically and internationally and will respond in a most conservative manner should any cause for concern arise in order to avoid any such situation.

In the event of tour cancellation due to border closure or similar government regulation preventing travel, will participants be able to get any prepaid trip costs back at all?

Prepaid trip costs will be refunded by ABBEY Language Travel based on the stage of booking and the monies that have been paid to suppliers to secure various tour bookings. A clear ‘Refund and Cancellation Terms and Conditions is provided in the Tour Information Pack on the first information meeting. It is part of ABBEY Language Travel’s best practices and ethics to commit to securing the maximum possible refund to its customers. Click here to know more

 

Do you have any more questions about this topic that we didn’t answer? Feel free to contact us and enquire! We’ll love to hear from you!

Happy planning & safe travels!

The ABBEY Language Travel Team

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