Iffco-Tokio plans travel insurance product

Iffco-Tokio General Insurance (ITGI), was planning to come up with the first of kind product in travel insurance for the domestic market and could move to seek the Insurance Regulatory & Dvelopment Authority(IRDA) in about three month's time.

ITGI, a joint venture between The Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) and its associates and Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire Group, already had a travel insurance product for the international traveller called the ITGI Travel Protector Policy.

The travel business accounted for around 2 per cent of ITGI's net premium collection, said Prantik Mitra, business head, ITGI.

Its net premium revenue for 2007-08 was Rs1254 crore. The new product would also have a built-in health cover component during travel like the old one.

ITGI sold its current travel insurance product mainly through corporate tie-ups and recently tied up with Kaizen Leisure & Holidays Ltd (KLHL), an associate company of the Peerless Group, to sell its products.

It already had a tie-up with the Peerless Group to sell its health, motor, shop and home insurance policies and did business worth Rs2.5 crore last fiscal through the tie-up.

"We would make it mandatory for all travellers to take a travel insurance", said Jayanta Roy, director, corporate planning and strategy, KLHL.

He could not share the details of the total number of tourists KLHL had handled last year.

The company enjoyed a 34 per cent market share in the East where the travel & tourism market was pegged at Rs460 crore.

KLHL announced three more tie-ups with Make My Trip travel portal, Budget Rent a Car Systems and Emergency Rescue Card(ERC). Through the strategic tie-up with ERC, KLHL would offer the service of transferring the customer to a better medical facility in case of an emergency during travel.

KLHL registered a turnover of Rs9 crore last fiscal and was eying a revenue of Rs15 crore this year with all the four tie-ups in place.