One third of British travellers are unaware EHIC changes are coming
London, UK October 26th 2020 ---- According to the latest research from Holiday Extras - the UK market leader in holiday extras such as airport parking, airport hotels and travel insurance - one third of UK travellers are unaware that the reciprocal protections UK travellers currently enjoy in Europe under the EHIC scheme will come to an end this year. Worse still, the travellers relying on EHIC instead of proper travel insurance even less likely to know the scheme will soon run out.
Asking 1000 people who had flown from a UK airport since 2019, Holiday Extras found that 33% of travellers go to Europe with both insurance and the EHIC; 43% take just insurance; but 11% rely on the EHIC and 13% say they take nothing at all and just hope nothing goes wrong.
Younger travellers and travellers from London were most likely to travel without protection. Most likely to take neither insurance nor EHIC were 21-25-year-olds; most likely to rely on the EHIC alone were 31-35. 33% of Londoners said they either travelled with just an EHIC or with nothing at all. And of those who said they travelled either with no insurance or just the EHIC, 38% didn't know the EHIC scheme would no longer cover them after Christmas.
Commenting on the results of the poil, Howard Dove, Insurance Director at Holiday Extras, said
"We always recommend you take a good, comprehensive travel insurance policy whenever you leave the UK, so to find that almost 25% of travellers go without, and that a third don't know the EHIC scheme may not cover them after Brexit, is obviously a concern."
Holiday Extras recently relaunched its Brexit Disruption travel insurance product, which offers enhanced protection for travellers in the event of a no-deal Brexit, and also offers Covid protection and a range of travel insurance policies including multi-trip, single trip and pre-existing conditions.
Those wanting to find out more can visit holidayextras.com/brexitcover or call 0800 083 9671.
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