K-pop craze may spur demand for Income Insurance’s hourly travel cover

The Singaporean insurer is targeting spontaneous travellers who love concerts.

Income Insurance is banking on Millennials and Gen Zs crazy about K-pop to drive the demand for its hourly travel insurance plan, which has been expanded to over a dozen more destinations in Asia, including South Korea.

Many young Singaporeans, particularly K-pop fans, are increasingly travelling overseas to watch concerts, a trend that the insurer seeks to capitalise on, Annie Chua, vice president and head of Key Accounts Management at Income Insurance, told Insurance Asia.

Income Insurance noticed that more travellers from these age brackets are booking trips just days in advance, and it thinks its FlexiTravel Plus policy may just be the right product for them.

“There is an increasing trend of last-minute, spontaneous travellers, so we decided to come up with a flexible travel product that caters to this new behaviour," Chua said via Zoom.

The insurer chose the new destinations because they are popular among Singaporeans for short getaways such as concerts. The product will replace FlexiTravel Hourly Insurance, Singapore’s first hourly travel insurance launched in 2022 and limited to Malaysia, and Bintan and Batam in Indonesia.

The plan now covers Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Macau, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and the entire Indonesia.

“We noted that a lot of people, especially Millennials and Gen Zs, going for short weekend getaways don’t even purchase travel insurance,” Chua said.

Income Insurance wants to change that by allowing them to buy six-hour blocks of coverage starting at $1.35 (S$1.80), with additional hours priced at $0.22 (S$0.30), capped at $2.25 (S$3) daily. A three-day trip to Thailand will cost as much as $6.74 (S$9) for a full coverage.

Singapore’s travel insurance industry was valued at $143.2m last year and is expected to grow 22.6% annually through 2030, according to a report by Next Move Strategy Consulting.

Millennials and Gen Zs, who are exposed to higher travel risks, look for insurance that goes beyond safety, according to a Klook survey of 2,500 respondents from Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong and South Korea in February 2024.

Many travellers, particularly Singaporeans (30%), Hong Kongers (36%), Malaysians (37%), and Filipinos (36%), buy insurance just days before their trips, and about a third of them want the insurance process to be enjoyable.

Convenience and flexibility are crucial for Millennials and GenZs, with 75% preferring to book flights, accommodation, and insurance in one place.

Income Insurance’s hourly travel insurance allows travellers to adjust their insurance based on their changing plans. The concept was borrowed from Singapore's hourly parking, where customers could shorten or extend by the hour, Chua said. 

If a traveller decides to extend their trip, they can simply extend their insurance by the hour. They also don’t have to pay for insurance hours they originally planned to use in case they cut their trip short.

Available only through Income Insurance’s mobile app, buying and adjusting coverage is seamless for a traveller who relies heavily on their smartphone for daily tasks. “It becomes quite relevant because Millennials use their phones as the main source for their daily errands," Chua said.

Because travel insurance is often not a priority for last-minute planners, Income Insurance allows travellers to buy insurance eight hours after they’ve left Singapore. The feature, the first of its kind in the industry, ensures that even the most forgetful travellers are protected.

Meanwhile, Chua said emerging technologies that would likely shape the travel insurance industry include artificial intelligence (AI) and hyper-personalization. 

“AI is playing a big role in managing our claims process, allowing a lot more investigation through AI,” she said. As insurers collect more data on customers' travel patterns, AI will also let them offer highly personalised insurance packages.

($1.00 = S$1.33)