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Technological advancements witnessed in recent years have led to rapid globalisation, with individuals, communities, cities and nations more linked and interconnected as never seen before.

As a consequence of the development of faster, safer and more reliable modes of transport, globe-trotting has become the order of the day.

In 2013 alone, the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) registered over 1,1 billion tourist arrivals worldwide. Zimbabweans have joined the travel bandwagon with a sizeable number travelling abroad annually.

This has been evidenced by the increased efficiency of the local passport offices, which now have the capacity to issue more than 500 travelling documents a day.

Major motivations for visiting other countries for Zimbabweans include study, employment, cross-border trading, holidaying, business and even shopping.

South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, Dubai and China have proved to be the most popular travel destinations for Zimbabweans.

Though visiting new places is viewed as an exciting prospect and adventure, it is also fraught with many challenges emanating mainly from differences in laws, customs, norms and language.

Additional vulnerabilities also arise from the foreigners’ lack of intimate knowledge about the country they are visiting, for example, geographical areas, safest modes of transport et cetera.

Those travelling alone in new areas – moreso without guidance from trusted locals – are exposed to a multitude of risks.

These include loss of personal luggage and other valuables to theft, mix-ups at airports, bodily injury, accidents, missing connecting flights, delays owing to adverse weather, sudden illness and even death.

Taking cognisance of these dangers, the average traveller usually responds by instituting very rudimentary risk management solutions such as being vaccinated, use of debit cards as opposed to hard cash, travelling in groups as well as travelling light.

Nonetheless, most of these measures are only effective against a few targeted risks. Effectively travellers remain exposed to a host of other uncertainties.

Further aggravating the challenge, most of the average travellers will be having limited funds to cushion themselves against unfavourable eventualities such as medical expenses and buying additional baggage.

To mitigate the risks and financial loss associated with travel, NicozDiamond in partnership with Travel Insurance Consultancy (TIC) structured a product targeted specifically at travellers.

TIC is a subsidiary of Santam, a leading insurer in South Africa.

There are two main types of packages, namely: leisure and business travel insurance.

These allow Zimbabweans to access worldwide travel insurance locally. NicozDiamond clients are able to purchase the cover in various currencies, including the Rand, Euro and Pound Sterling.

The travel insurance provides global cover anywhere in the world and includes emergency assistance provided through Europe Assistance.

The product mainly covers against medical expenses, trip cancellation, lost luggage as well as flight accidents.

For an extra cost, the policyholder can choose to include cover for pre-existing medical conditions, extreme sporting, travel to high-risk countries as well as insolvency of third parties (hotels, airliners) for which payments would already have been made.

Clearly, when travelling, it is important to have insurance cover as a precautionary and fail-safe measure targeted at limiting the financial impact of unfavourable events.

Insurance is the best form of defence compared to other self-risk mitigation techniques since risk management is what insurers do best. Come and get your travel Insurance from NicozDiamond today as you never know what will happen.

For more information about NicozDiamond Insurance please contact us on the following:-Tel: 263-04–799286, 700297, 701133, 704911, 251008, and 700146-Fax: 263-04–704134, 700083 – [email protected] Website: www.nicozdiamond.co.zw