Whether you're a newcomer to the travel industry, or a growing agency with clout, one thing is certain: You need a foolproof way to protect your clients against bankruptcy of tour operators, cruise lines, and suppliers.
Many travel agencies faithfully look to travel insurance, but it's important to ensure your travel insurance provider is not using whitelists and blacklists to define coverage. Sure, supplier bankruptcy or default is a rare occurrence in the travel industry, but as the Patriots so graciously reminded America in the 2017 Super Bowl: anything can happen and it's best to come with your game face on.
Chances are you have heard of a blacklist. It's a list of people or organizations that have been penalized or received disapproval. Travel insurance companies sometimes create blacklists of their own to define which travel suppliers they will not cover in the event of bankruptcy. A whitelist defines which travel suppliers they will cover.
Whitelists and blacklists are not necessary when providing coverage against bankruptcy and default. Although many of our competitors feel otherwise, we at TravelSafe find them time-consuming and somewhat confusing for travel agents to have to reference. This is why we do not use them.
We try to broaden our coverage against supplier bankruptcy or default by never excluding travel suppliers. All your clients must do is purchase a policy within our time-sensitive window(assuming no bankruptcy has been previously announced.)
Keep in mind that excluding travel suppliers from coverage is a restriction on your clients coverage. The less restrictions you have, the better.
