What are the types of travel insurance in Kenya?

Local Travel

This is a local travel insurance designed to cover Kenyan citizens and residents while travelling within Kenya. Companies like GA Insurance offer such policies for travellers although most other insurance companies in the market would recommend a medical insurance cover or personal accident cover for the same purposes.

Inbound

One of the least popular travel insurances in Kenya, which covers for foreigner travelling to Kenya for business and leisure. Kenya generates over KSh 120 Billions in revenues from tourism each year and receives hundreds of thousands of tourists. This cover is designed to cover such visitors during their travels within the Kenyan territories. The reason that this is not popular is because these travellers take out travel insurance polices from their home countries to cover them while they are overseas travelling in Kenya. Resolution travel insurance is one of the companies that offers inbound travel covers on the market.

Medical travel insurances

This type of travel covers is sometimes accepted by the foreign consulates and embassies in Kenya. The local medical insurance companies provide a benefit of overseas coverage for up to 60 days of overseas travel. This is so that if a Kenyan citizens travelling overseas requires medical attention, they can be attended to at their destination, however it is important to note that this is on re-imbursement. IF the traveller doesn't have the financial means, this may be a dead end. Next are the international medical insurance companies in Kenya like AETNA medical cover, Allianz, BUPA, and others. These offer medical insurance cover, which may extend to worldwide coverage depending on the option selected by the insured. With these, customers can enjoy medical attention any where in the world thanks to a large and global medical provider network these brands have.

Remember that these types of covers will only provide for medical benefits and may not provide for things like travel delays, cancellations, baggage losses, personal liabilities and others, which means the insured may have to meet the costs from their pocket.

Africa

This is one of the commonest covers taken for the Africa region including the islands like Zanzibar, Mauritius and others. Cape Verde just off of the African coast is one to consider and make sure you confirm with your travel insurance policy under which jurisdiction it lies. This is one of the cheapest travel insurance covers on the market thanks to the relatively lower cost of living and services in the region as compared to the other parts of the world.

Europe

This is less common travel cover before of the preference of most travellers for the Schengen region of travel. In essence, this supersedes the Schengen region as it covers all European countries. It typically offers higher overall limits of the emergency medical expenses and also offers cover for baggage loss and delay, flight delays and cancellation and the usual secondary travel insurance benefits. While the Schengen countries are very strict on the need for a travel cover, the UK visa application doesn't make it mandatory.

Schengen Travel Insurance

This is the commonest travel insurance purchased online by most travellers in Kenya. This is a special insurance for those travelling to only the Schengen region therefore it does not cover travel to European countries not in the Schengen region like the United Kingdom, Croatia, Cyprus. It is a requirement for the Schengen visa application in Kenya and most other parts of the world. It must cover a minimum of EUR 30,000 for the emergency medical expenses during the period of cover. It is one of the cheapest travel insurance covers because of the insurers do away with the other benefits of the insurance such as travel delay, cancellation, baggage loss and delay and more others so as to provide just a cover that meets the embassy requirements, this helps to bring down the final prices of the insurance. For a comparison of the cheapest Schengen covers, check out our blog post in this travel insurance series. Most Schengen countries use VFS global to handle their visa application process and logistics world and it is no different here in Kenya. An example is the Finland visa application process done by the VFS here in Kenya.

Asia and Middle East

Asia is also a popular destination for most travellers out of Nairobi with Dubai and Qatar have a large population of Kenyan tourists and workers. All the leading Middle Eastern airlines like Emirates Airlines have multiple flights daily into Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta and this has increased the popularity of the road. In addition, many travellers going to China and India require this travel insurance cover. Some companies like the Occidental travel insurance offer a similar package for both Africa and Asia bearing the same benefits and also the same prices. This is an international travel insurance package underwritten by MAPFRE insurance of Spain.

World Wide excluding USA/Canada

This is an option that exists to give travellers going to places like Australia, New Zealand, South America and others an affordable travel insurance. This is because it removes the high cost areas like the US/Canada which would drive the costs up. Many companies in Kenya offer this plan like the Fidelity Travel insurance as well as the AIG Kenya travel insurance. If you are not travelling to the US/Canada, you can save some money on your premiums by taking such a plan.

World Wide Plus

This is the ultimate travel cover available on the market covering all destinations in the World. Because of this, it tends to have the highest limits of liabilities with cover things like emergency medical expenses going all the way up to USD 1 million. This caters for the high costs/expenses in the USA and Canada where any emergency medical expenses can quickly shoot up.

Most travellers especially first timers may be unsure on which policy to take when preparing and planning their journeys, it's important to find the right policy giving you adequate cover wherever you might be going, speak to our team of insurance experts to help you get the best cover. Or simply submit your travel insurance details here and start the online comparison process or reach us on our contact details below. Check out our twitter page here https://twitter.com/pesabazaar