According to the Aviation Barometer by the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), 1,589,309 passengers departed South African airports to travel abroad in the fourth quarter of 2017 alone. While South Africa’s economy has resulted in a decline in consumer spending, the report showed that international departures rose by 4.38%.
Traveling abroad for a holiday has multiple health benefits, ranging from; improved health, stress relief, improves mental health and creative thinking, amongst others. But, South Africans are encouraged to ensure that they have adequate cover such as travel insurance to protect them against any risk that could leave them out of pocket.
Would-be travelers can now directly purchase insurance using the Hippo.co.za comparative quoting process.
Vera Nagtegaal, Executive Head of Hippo.co.za, says that consumers will now be able to buy their travel insurance online, at the best price to suit their needs, and in a few easy steps. “Partnering with Hepstar, users of the platform will now be directed to a dedicated (mobile and desktop enabled) platform where they can directly purchase travel insurance products from our service providers.”
“The partnership with Hepstar utilizes the latest innovation in the travel insurance space,” she says.
Nagtegaal says this partnership will make it easier and quicker to buy travel insurance because information gathered during the quoting exercise is automatically sent to Hepstar’s platform. “This fast-tracks the purchasing process, skipping certain (now unnecessary) steps to eliminate the pain of customers having to duplicate their efforts.”
“Usually there are technical barriers and system integration considerations when partnering with suppliers, but in this case, we decided to leverage off Hepstar because of its existing supply network and user-friendly platform. This is a win-win for everyone involved, especially the consumer,” Nagtegaal adds.
Hepstar recently introduced a similar offering at visa application centers where users only had access to a single supplier at a time.
Heinrich Brand, Hepstar Co-founder, and Legal Officer, says that its various technology products have found favor with travel insurance suppliers across the globe, whether to replace their legacy systems, provide innovative additions, or meet specific point of sale challenges posed by travel companies and comparison sites.
“We pride ourselves on making insurance accessible and easy to purchase for the average consumer, as well as offering travel insurance product variability through our platform,” Brand adds.
