Why do tourists use travel insurance?

What is travel insurance?

What kind of insurance choices are at travellers’ disposal?

Does the plan that was purchased stipulate the amount of benefits to be paid?

What expenses would be reimbursed with Accidental Medical Expenses insurance?

What does Emergency Medical Evacuation mean?

What does Repatriation of Remains typically state?

What kind of insurance is recommended to compensate for difficulties experienced due to damage or destruction of personal items, and lost or stolen items?

What kind of other cases will you be reimbursed?

Translate into Ukrainian.

Travelers Insurance

Enhanced modes of transport have made extensive travel a common indulgence. However, there is a distinct need for the 21st century traveler to check out insurance coverage on every segment of travel to ensure real value for the money spent.

Travel involves adventure and risk and hence the need for insurance. It is essential to have travel coverage in place, especially in the case of a frequent traveler. This way, you get to enjoy the trip to the maximum and within the security of insurance. If you are adventurous, a sport enthusiast, a globe trotter or a business person who travels extensively, there are a myriad of insurance offers to finance you and take care of everything from ticketing to accommodation. Travel insurance is designed to minimize the financial risks that a traveler faces due to last minute cancellations, medical emergency, delay or loss of baggage or the ultimate nightmare – loss of cash!

A traveler cannot rule out the possibility of a missed departure or loss of passport and the subsequent legal expenses. Such occurrences can really drain you of patience and the leisure time on hand. However, it is better to be safe than sorry. These emergencies cannot be ruled out and hence, need to be covered via travelers insurance. The insurance will largely depend on the category of traveler you fit into. You could be categorized under single trip or multi trip, short or long trip, one time or frequent or tourist or adventure sport enthusiast. Whatever the category, there is a traveler’s insurance designed for you.

The insurance company covering you under the traveler’s insurance supports every effort made to plan the trip or vacation and ensures that nothing untoward happens. In other words, the travel insurance is a designed ‘back up’ for the unexpected turn of events, if any do raise their ugly heads. The covers provided under the different insurance packages include ticket reimbursement and medical expenses. It is important to understand that the ticket expenses are reimbursed in event of the trip getting cancelled or interrupted due to ill health. This could also be the case in event of the sudden loss or serious condition of family member. The traveler’s medical insurance plan takes care of all medical expenses, including hospitalization during travel.

There are other specialized package plans available for particular travelers, like the student’s plan that covers the student for a semester or even a year of travel. There are insurance plans that cater specifically to students studying abroad. In these travelers insurances, the premium is calculated on the basis of the plan module and the additional expenses that are naturally applicable to an overseas student, which differ from one cover to another. The backpacker’s travel plan is designed for individual and extensive travelers. Since most of such trips involve trekking and road travel, the overages offered too relate to associated expenses.

There is a traveler’s insurance plan specially designed for senior citizens who travel around the world, post retirement. However, the premiums calculated are higher since the insured are senior citizens, who are more likely to fall ill and make claims. The businessmen who travel frequently can invest in a special plan put together for them, which offers them the choice of an annual plan or a multi trip plan insurance coverage. The insurance plans designed for travelers also cover toddlers who are exposed to the risk of getting some infection or disease in transit. In such an unfortunate event, if the family trip stands cancelled, the plan provides for eventualities.

There are traveler’s insurance covers that also provide for various types of groups. These include club member tours, tours organized by the civic authorities or the church or some youth organization. The group is covered for both a tour within and outside the country and covers the young and older members of the group. The risk factor associated with extreme sports like bunjee jumping, jet-skiing, parascending, water rafting, windsurfing, yatch racing and scuba diving cannot be denied. Such travelers are covered by the travel insurance companies under separate packages at extra costs. They cover the hazardous activities and calculate the premium according to the risk and age factor.

UNIT 7. RECREATION AND TOURISM MARKETING

The marketing mix-the 4 Ps-target audience-segmentation-objectives-evaluation. These and other terms are all used in the process of "marketing."

In tourism and tourism related industries, success means understanding this process.

This bulletin is designed for those in the tourism industry who may not be completely familiar with marketing or who may simply wish to refresh their basic marketing skills. Covered will be important concepts used in marketing, the relationship of marketing to tourism, and a process for developing a marketing plan for tourism/recreation businesses and/or communities. It will be impossible to cover in detail all the aspects of marketing within the scope of this bulletin.

WHAT IS MARKETING? People hold a variety of misconceptions about marketing. Most common is its confusion with selling and advertising. Selling and advertising are actually types of promotion which is only a component of marketing.

Marketing involves much more, including product/service development, place (location and distribution), and pricing. It requires information about people, especially those interested in what you have to offer (your "market"), such as what they like, where they buy and how much they spend. Its role is to match the right product or service with the right market or audience. Marketing, as you will see, is an art and a science. According to the American Marketing Association, marketing is "the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives." Simply stated it is creating and promoting a product (ideas, goods or services) that satisfies a customer's need or desire and is available at a desirable price and place.

Modern marketing is a way of doing business, heavily based on the "marketing concept" which holds that businesses and organizations should:

(1) design their products/services to meet customer needs and wants;

(2) focus on those people most likely to buy their product rather than the entire mass market; and

(3) develop marketing efforts that fit into their overall business objectives.

By adopting this concept you not only provide your customers with better products, you will avoid wasting valuable time and money developing and promoting a product or service nobody wants.

RECREATION AND TOURISM MARKETING. Earlier it was mentioned that a product can be "ideas, goods, or services." Since tourism is primarily a service based industry, the principal products provided by recreation/tourism (R/T) businesses are recreational experiences and hospitality. These are intangible products and more difficult to market than tangible products such as automobiles. The intangible nature of services makes quality control difficult but crucial. It also makes it more difficult for potential customers to evaluate and compare service offerings. In addition, instead of moving the product to the customer, the customer must travel to the product (area/community). Travel is a significant portion of the time and money spent in association with recreational and tourism experiences and is a major factor in people's decisions on whether or not to visit your business or community. As an industry, tourism has many components comprising the overall "travel experience." Along with transportation, it includes such things as accommodations, food and beverage services, shops, entertainment, aesthetics and special events. It is rare for one business to provide the variety of activities or facilities tourists need or desire. This adds to the difficulty of maintaining and controlling the quality of the experience. To overcome this hurdle, tourism related businesses, agencies, and organizations need to work together to package and promote tourism opportunities in their areas and align their efforts to assure consistency in product quality.

MARKET SEGMENTATION (IDENTIFICATION). Recreation and tourism businesses and communities often make the mistake of attempting to be all things to all people. It is difficult, and risky, to develop marketing strategies for the mass market. Strategies designed for the "average" customer often result in unappealing products, prices, and promotional messages. For example, it would be difficult to develop a campground that would be equally attractive to recreational vehicle campers and backpackers or promote a property to serve both snowmobilers and nature oriented cross country skiers. Marketing is strongly based on market segmentation and target marketing. Market segmentation is the process of:

(1) taking existing and/or potential customers/visitors (market) and categorizing them into groups with similar preferences referred to as "market segments;"

(2) selecting the most promising segments as "target markets;" and

(3) designing "marketing mixes," or strategies (combination of the 4 Ps), which satisfy the special needs, desires and behavior of the target markets.

There is no unique or best way to segment markets, but ways in which customers can be grouped are:

(1) location of residence---instate, out-of-state, local;

(2) demographics---age, income, family status, education;

(3) equipment ownership/use---RV's, sailboats, canoes, tents, snowmobiles;

(4) important product attributes---price, quality, quantity; and

(5) lifestyle attributes---activities, interests, opinions.

To be useful, the segment identification process should result in segments that suggest marketing efforts that will be effective in attracting them and at least one segment large enough to justify specialized marketing efforts. After segments have been identified, the business or community must select the "target markets," those segments which offer them the greatest opportunity. When determining target markets, consideration should be given to:

(1) existing and future sales potential of each segment;

(2) the amount and strength of competition for each segment;

(3) the ability to offer a marketing mix which will be successful in attracting each segment;

(4) the cost of servicing each segment; and

(5) each segment's contribution to accomplishing overall business/community objectives.

It is often wiser to target smaller segments that are presently not being served, or served inadequately, than to go after larger segments for which there is a great deal of competition.

PROMOTION. Promotion provides target audiences with accurate and timely information to help them decide whether to visit your community or business. The information should be of importance and practical use to the potential or existing visitor and also accurate. Misrepresentation often leads to dissatisfied customers and poor recommendations. Don't make claims you cannot live up to. Developing a promotional campaign is not a science with hard and fast rules. Making decisions regarding which type or combination of promotion types to use (personal selling, advertising, sales promotions, or publicity) is not always easy. If, however, you follow a logical process and do the necessary research, chances for success will be improved. It will be necessary to make decisions regarding:

(1) Target audience ---the group you are aiming at;

(2) Image ---that which your community or business wants to create or reinforce;

(3) Objectives ---those of the promotional campaign;

(4) Budget ---the amount of money available for your promotion;

(5) Timing ---when and how often should your promotions appear;

(6) Media ---which methods (television, radio, newspaper, magazine) will most effectively and efficiently communicate your message to the target audience; and

(7) Evaluation ---how can the effectiveness of the promotional campaign be determined.

CONCLUSION. Customer satisfaction in tourism is greatly influenced by the way in which the service (hospitality) is delivered and the physical appearance and personality of the business. It is critical that these elements be communicated in the best possible manner to convince people to come and experience what your business or community has to offer. Equally important is the ability to generate repeat business because of your efforts. Thus, marketing becomes the method to reach potential visitors. It is a vital part of tourism management and can be done effectively and well, with sophistication and tact, or it can be done poorly in a loud, crass and intrusive manner. Hopefully, this bulletin has given you the basics for the former rather than the latter. Remember that to do an effective job at marketing:

(1) adopt a strong customer orientation which includes regular research and assessment of their needs, wants and attitudes;(2) allocate sufficient resources and time to marketing; (3) assign formal responsibility for marketing to one person or department; and (4) develop and regularly update a marketing plan.

Active Vocabulary

audience - 1) аудиторія; слухачі; публіка 2) слухання (справи в суді) 3) аудієнція (у когось - of, with)

segmentation - сегментація

objective - мета; прагнення

evaluation - 1) оцінювання, оцінка 2) визначення (кількості, вартості)

the scope - 1) межі, рамки a mind of wide scope — людина широких поглядів it is beyond my scope — це поза моєю компетенцією 2) масштаб, розмах, сфера 3) можливість, простір, свобода he has full [free] scope — йому надано повну свободу дій 4) намір, мета

misconception - 1) неправильне уявлення 2) непорозуміння

confusion -1) збентеження; замішання 2) безладдя; плутанина

distribution -1) розподіл, роздача 2) поширення 3) розміщення 4) рух товарів від підприємства до споживача 5) розміщення цінних паперів

to execute ['eksɪkjut] - 1) виконувати 2) страчувати 3) оформляти (документ) 4) виконувати

the conception - 1) розуміння 2) поняття; концепція 3) задум 4) зачаття, запліднення

pricing - калькуляція ціни; формування ціни; ціноутворення; встановлення ціни (на товар, послугу)

marketing concept – маркетингова концепція (понят, ідея; загальне уявлення)

to focus on – зосередитися на

mass market – масовий ринок

to fit into - годитися, бути придатним, пристосовувати(ся)

to avoid - уникати

intangible products – нематеріальна продукція

tangible products - матеріальна продукція

crucial - вирішальний, критичний

to evaluate - 1) оцінювати; визначати кількість 2) виражати в числах

to compare - порівнювати; зіставляти (з - with, to)

in association with – у зв’язку із

to comprise - містити в собі, вміщати, охоплювати

aesthetics [is'θetɪks] - естетика

to overcome thе hurdle - подолати перешкоду

to be related - бути пов'язаним

to align their efforts - об'єднувати свої сили ((1) вишиковувати(ся); шикувати(ся); ставити в ряд, вирівнювати 2) націлювати, наводити))

to assure consistency – гарантувати (забезпечувати) послідовність (логічність, сумісність, погодженість, постійність)

to attempt - пробувати, намагатися; братися; заходжуватися

marketing strategy – маркетингова стратегія

unappealing products – неприваблива продукція

a campground - місце табору, таборище

vehicle camper – автомобільні кемпер

backpacker – піший турист

snowmobiler – водій снігоходу

snowmobile ['snəʊməbil] - снігохід

country skier – заміській лижник

market segmentation – маркетингова сегментація

target marketing – цільовий маркетинг

promising segments – перспективні сегменти

marketing mixes – маркетингові поєднання

to determine [dɪ'tɜːmɪn] - визначати; встановлювати

competition - 1) конкуренція 2) змагання

the ability - здібність, здатність; спритність, уміння

contribution - 1) сприяння 2) внесок 3) стаття (для газети, журналу) 4) співробітництво (в газеті і т.д.) 5) податок; контрибуція 6) вклад (у науку, справу і т.д.)

to accomplish - 1) завершувати; виконувати; досягати; доводити до кінця 2) робити досконалим; вдосконалювати

inadequately [ɪn'ædɪkwɪt] - 1) невідповідний, неадекватний 2) нерозмірний 3) недостатній 4) непідхожий; недосконалий

target audiences – цільова аудиторія

accurate and timely information – точна і своєчасна інформація

misrepresentation [mɪsreprɪzen'teɪʃ(ə)n] - неправильне висвітлення; перекручення, спотворення (фактів тощо)

to make claims – пред’являти претензії, позови

to live up to – виконати, виправдати

a promotional campaign – рекламна кампанія

publicity - реклама

to convince - переконувати

community - 1) община, громада 2) (the community) суспільство 3) спільність

to generate - 1) спричиняти, викликати 2) створювати; генерувати; породжувати

crass -1) грубий, тупий 2) цілковитий, повний (про неуцтво тощо)

intrusive - настирливий, набридливий

to adopt - 1) усиновляти; удочеряти 2) приймати, засвоювати to adopt another course of action — змінити тактику 3) запозичувати (слова з чужої мови) 4) вибирати, добирати, брати на вибір

assessment -1) обкладання 2) сума оподаткування 3) оцінка майна для оподаткування

attitude - ставлення до; позиція

to allocate - 1) розміщувати, розподіляти, призначати (to) 2) асигнувати; резервувати, бронювати (кредити і т.п.) 3) локалізувати

to assign - 1) призначати; асигнувати 2) приписувати, вважати 3) призначати на посаду 4) доручати, передавати 5) визначати, встановлювати (термін, межі)

to update -модернізувати; приводити у відповідність з вимогами сучасності

Answer the following questions: