InsureandGo gives top tips for Aussie World Cup fans travelling to Brazil

Sydney, 10 June 2014 – The month long feast of football, the 2014 World Cup, kicks off on the 12/6/14 in San Paulo, Brazil. With 3.3million tickets available to one of the world’s biggest sporting events of the year, football fans across the globe are now converging on Brazil to enjoy all that the event and the country has to offer.

With record numbers of Australians booked to watch the Socceroos do us proud, leading online travel insurance provider, InsureandGo has advised top tips for travellers to make the most of their holiday and best ways to avoid potential peril:

1. Book any tickets to World Cup events through a licensed agent (any loss of tickets from an unlicensed agent or ‘touted’ tickets are not covered)
2. Ensure you have emergency rescue and medical cover. Medical facilities in Brazil are among the best in the continent particularly in the larger cities of Rio, San Paulo and Brasilia. Regional medical facilities are more basic and therefore it is recommended that Australians ensure their particular policy includes emergency repatriation and evacuation cover.
3. Ensure you have adequate luggage and personal effects cover. Make sure you choose a policy that covers all the activities that you plan to take part in and that the baggage cover is suitable for the items you plan to take away with you. If cover for items like phones, cameras, laptops, tablets etc is important to you then consider upgrading your level of baggage cover to include these items.
4. Participating in deliberate, malicious, reckless, illegal or criminal acts – hooliganism will not be covered by travel insurance. Sporting events can turn passionate supporters into frenzied fanatics. Don’t get carried away in the moment. Remember to keep your wits about you and avoid illegal or reckless behaviour.
5. Make sure you choose a policy that covers all the activities you plan to take part in during your trip.
6. Check the latest travel warnings from DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade). You will not be covered if you travel against the government’s advice. Visit www.smartraveller.gov.au for up to date travel advice.
7. Ensure all your travel destinations are covered – this also includes any transit and stopover destinations. Even if you only stop off for a few hours you should make sure you’re covered, just in case.
8. Check that you can contact your provider 24/7 should an emergency arise – InsureandGo have a 24 hour emergency assistance line provided by MAPFRE ASSISTANCE, a multinational insurance, reinsurance and assistance services provider with more than 90 million people insured.
9. Top risks inherent to travelling in Brazil are no different to those when traveling anywhere in South America. Generally speaking, they include food poisoning, traffic accidents, and disease such as Dengue Fever and Malaria. The risk of disease can be addressed by seeking appropriate preventative care before leaving to go to Brazil.

InsureandGo has recorded a more than 40% increase in policies^ to South America during the first quarter of 2014 when comparing to the same period last year, indicating that many Australians are travelling to the World Cup with Insurance.

The Brazilian organisers of the epic event have attempted to ensure that all proceeds smoothly however when dealing with occasions of the scale of the World Cup things can just go wrong. InsureandGo’s General Manager Sebastian Kaisin said events of the scale of the World Cup, no matter how well planned, put a strain on infrastructure and emergency services that can cause unexpected consequences.

“Travellers are well advised to take out comprehensive travel insurance before going to enjoy all that Brazil has to offer,” Mr Kaisin said.

“Claims for the loss of personal items and baggage make up 50% of all claims made from Brazil. Whilst taking common sense precautions for personal belongings will reduce the chances of theft and damage, situations arise where no amount of personal vigilance can help plain bad luck,” Mr Kaisin said.

“The sheer numbers of visitors to Brazil will inevitably put existing infrastructure under additional stress. There will be more people, more bags, more planes, more trains, more buses… more everything. Simply put, more opportunities for things to go wrong.”

The balance of most claims travelling to Brazil relate to travel delay, medical, personal accident and emergency medical events