Egypt is preparing to implement the first compulsory insurance law for tourists, to boost confidence in Egypt as a destination.
The mandatory insurance policy will cover the risk of personal accident, death and total disability, as well as medical treatment expenses while the tourist is in Egypt, reported Al Arab.
The importance of imposing mandatory insurance has been elevated after UK global travel firm Thomas Cook announced the withdrawal of all its customers from a hotel in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada after the death of two British tourists and reports of ‘a raised level of illness among guests’.
The need for insurance has been increasing after repeated incidents involving individual tourists from Asian, African and Arab countries.
The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) is carrying out an actuarial study that includes data on the numbers of foreign tourists and the types of accidents they have experienced in past years. Data from the study obtained by the Authority from the Ministry of Tourism and Interior and the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics will be used to determine the value of premiums and collection methods, said FRA’s vice chairman Reda Abdel Moaty.
He said the study includes the possibility of contracting with a global insurer to provide the compulsory insurance through a tender by the FRA, as well as the possibility of treating tourists through the Egyptian health insurance law in public or private hospitals.
The number of tourism companies in Egypt is almost 2,300, while the number of arrivals during the past 10 months was about 7.3m tourists, mostly from European countries followed by the Middle East and then Africa.
Mr Alaa El-Zoheiry, chairman of the Insurance Federation of Egypt, said the new law is important. In a statement to Al Arab, he ruled out that the new insurance coverage would have a negative impact on inbound tourism, because the premium will be cheap, and does not represent a burden on the tourist. M