Posts Tagged ‘gap year’

New Statistics On Gap Year Travellers

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

Two interesting reports on UK gap year travellers were brought to my attention by travelbite.co.uk. AA travel insurance reports that with backpackers carrying electronic instruments such as mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 players and laptops, the value of an average backpack and its contents has risen to around £450. The AA estimate that at any given time backpackers from the UK are wandering around the world with £1.7 billion worth of electronic gadgetry stowed in their rucksacks. When you consider the low security of many cheap hotels and even the possibility of sleeping under the starts, it’s essential to hold a valid travel insurance policy. They warn that you must look for the correct type of policy which is a long stay or rather than an annual policy that runs for a year but each trip is limited to something like 28 days.

Around the same time as the AA report, American Express Travel Insurance published the results of a poll of 10,000 of their customers. Bizarrely, they say that one third of all gap years are taken by the over 55s. Now I’m not disputing that people of that age might well decide to take a trip around the world whilst they still have the energy and desire to want to do it, but it surely can’t be a gap year…a gap from what ?. Hell, they’re on the verge of retirement and there’s no scope for a gap year unless it’s the year between work and retirement, but then we normally call that early retirement don’t we?. Anyhow the poll showed that more than half of gap year travellers from the UK are over 25. Presumably those in their twenties and thirties are taking a gap between jobs or between freedom and parenthood which is still stretching the accepted definition of the term “gap year”.

Hardly surprisingly, American Express Travel Insurance were quick to point out the importance of arranging travel insurance before setting off on your big journey. Their advice was :

  • Ensure that you are covered for all destinations you intend to visit.
  • If you are planning to work while away, check to see whether the policy covers this. Most policies cover work that is unpaid and does not involve manual labour.
  • Declare any on-going medical conditions and recent hospital visits.
  • You will generally need extended rather than annual insurance policies. Annual policies typically cover multiple trips with a maximum number of days taken during a 12-month period, whereas extended policies provide continuous cover for anywhere between six and 18 months.
  • If you want to try your hand at extreme sports, such as bungee jumping and sky diving, ensure you are covered. In many cases you will need to buy an add-on to your policy to be covered for extreme sports.

    • If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

    Tags: , , , , ,
    Posted in Travel Insurance | No Comments »