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Europäische Reiseversicherung: Strong growth also in crisis year 2009 Premium revenues up 9.3% - Result of ordinary operations doubled – Over 2 million travellers insured The positive performance of Europäische Reiseversicherung, with a market share of over 60% and thus Austria's largest travel insurer, continued into the crisis year of 2009; the company, which is part of the Generali Group, achieved the best result in its history, with grown in premium revenues by 9.3% to EUR 50.7 million, and breaking through the two-million threshold in terms of numbers of travellers insured. All areas of business, including foreign business, achieved growth; there were no events exacerbating the level of claims, and consistent cost management led to the near doubling of the company's operating result, at EUR 2.9 million. Due to excellent performance in terms of yield on capital, net income for the year, at EUR 1.25 million, also grew to over twice the level of the previous year. "We have further secured and consolidated our leading position and adjusted our products to the needs of our customers and partners," declares Board Chairman of Europäische, Dr Martin Sturzlbaum. Growth was achieved despite market developments which, while not being as dramatic as forecast, were overall markedly negative. Crucial in this regard is the growing risk awareness of customers, which is leading to ever greater market penetration. Discussions in the public domain concerning inadequate protection by the e-Card and the exorbitant costs of medical care abroad mean that over 60% of trips booked via travel agencies are now insured. There is considerable capacity for expansion in the area of insurance for independently-arranged trips. Here, only c. 15% of travellers are insured! The tourist industry is forcing travellers to take out travel insurance, because if customers are covered, considerable contribution margins are achieved and above all, cancellations are covered by trip cancellation cover. This is also true for the hotel industry; over 3,200 hotels already offer their guests the "Hotelstorno Plus Versicherung" ("Hotel Cancellation Plus Insurance") at the time of booking; besides cancellation protection, this also covers the high search and rescue costs in the event of mountain or ski accidents – including helicopter transportation. The considerable liability risk for the employer is leading a growing number of companies to take out the Corporate Travel Insurance (CTI) for their employees, offered by Europäische specially for this sector; despite the fact that business trips are down by up to 30%, growth in double digits was achieved in new-customer policies. The level of claims was moderate in 2009, without any major events such as natural disasters or epidemics in destination areas. The cost of claims was almost unchanged at EUR 23.4 million, whereby this principally related, as usual, to cancellations, at a level of EUR 13 million, followed by benefits related to health insurance at EUR 6.8 million. While the cost of large claims over EUR 50,000 was 10% lower than in the previous year, at EUR 4.7 million, several individual events did exceed EUR 200,000, and the highest claim totalled EUR 372,000; this was principally due to lengthy hospital stays abroad and expensive return transportation by air ambulance. Europäische thus took the opportunity to double the sums insured for its new premium product Komplett-Schutz Plus (Complete Cover Plus) to EUR 500,000 (for families, EUR 1 million). "We have also broadened the acceptable cancellation grounds by 20 points," explains Dr Martin Sturzlbaum. "The aim is that holidays should be fully covered. For this reason, our insurance products have virtually no excess payments and only very few exclusions." The foreign commitments of Europäische in Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, in Hungary, Slovenia and South Tyrol all evolved positively despite the fact that in some cases, there was a huge slump in tourism. Both Austrian subsidiaries too performed well; the Training Center TTC further expanded its training operations for travel-agency staff, and insurance broker Care Consult achieved growth in the tourism sector of 30% based on special insurance solutions. For the current year 2010, Dr Martin Sturzlbaum expects to see a positive trend despite volatile economic performance. "As a centre of excellence for security in travel, we continue to perceive great market potential which can be exploited using good products." This relates not least to the large, still mainly-undeveloped area of trips not organized via travel agencies; Europäische's annual insurance policies, which cover all trips taken at home and abroad, achieved double-digit growth rates also in 2009.
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