Tag: travel insurance

According to the recent Africa Wealth Report by Henley & Partners, titled 'Predetermined Bias: Comparing the Visa Rejection Rate of Africans versus the Rest of the World’, the rejection rate for African applicants seeking Schengen visas went up 12% in the last eight years, reaching a shocking 30%. This surpassed the global average by 12.5%.

President Ramaphosa has promulgated the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act. The NHI, in its bill form, has been controversial since its introduction and has attracted significant critique from various stakeholders. It is therefore likely that the Act will be the subject of fierce litigation, sooner or later.

Unmarried, no kids, and a bank balance that’s a little low? Your chances of successfully getting a visa to travel just got slimmer. Not everyone’s equal when it comes to visa applications. Factors such as your marital status, whether or not you have children, ownership of property, how long you’ve worked for the company, your bank balance, and even your social media activity can count against you.

For the first time in history, there are five generations in the workplace. From Generation Z (Gen Z) to the silent generation, the diversity of life stages is the most complicated it's been in history. In the same way that corporate culture and policies are evolving to stamp out issues like the “wage gap”, organisations need to address the issues created by the “age gap”.

South African business travel is rapidly accelerating in 2023 as most travellers have by now dusted off their suitcases and started taking to the skies again. Interestingly, former road warriors may have become slightly ‘travel unfit’, leading to mistakes, oversights, or difficulties during a trip.

The recent presentation at the Board of Healthcare Funder’s annual conference by Christoff Raath, joint-CEO of Insight Actuaries, should garner wide support from the private healthcare industry. Raath quite rightly lamented the incredibly slow pace and prevaricating by the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) in developing lower cost medical scheme options that could introduce millions more members into the private health sector.

Life looks a whole lot different since the dawn of COVID-19 – face masks, elbow greetings, temperature checks at practically every entrance, and an overwhelming amount of sanitiser dominating our days. And business travel definitely isn’t an exception.

After the likely spike in insurance claims arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, insurers are likely to introduce new or change  existing exclusionary clauses which were not previously considered to be necessary. The rapid spread and potential damage of the coronavirus presents an extraordinary situation for governments, businesses and individuals.

Understanding and drawing on the cancellation, refund or insurance covers of all operators in the travel value chain offers victims of COVID-19 cancellations the best option to spread their risk, increasing the chances and value of settlement. Now that COVID-19 has been declared a global pandemic it is simply not possible to travel internationally.

If you’ve ever felt stressed or anxious about business travels, know that you are not alone. In fact, experts have come up with a new term to describe this very common phenomenon. It’s called 'Permanxiety'. Coined in 2017 by global travel industry platform Skift, permanxiety refers to a permanent state of anxiety widely experienced across the world.