Explaining Comprehensive Protection for Greater Bay Area Excursions

As the weekends usher in crowds eager to travel across Hong Kong’s numerous borders, it's clear that hopping over to the mainland has become a popular leisure activity for Hong Kong residents. Just across the border, various attractions offer high-quality, cost-effective experiences, and consumers are flocking in droves, ready to embark on a whirlwind day trip or a relaxing holiday. During the 2023 Christmas period alone, Hong Kong saw over 410,000 people leaving the city on the first day of the holidays. A staggering 340,000 crossed over to the mainland via land ports, highlighting this remarkable new travel trend.

Despite the convenience these short trips to the Greater Bay Area (GBA) offer us, sometimes we overlook the importance of travel insurance. The allure of the mainland doesn’t just lie in its culinary experiences or entertainment on offer, but also in its emerging adventure sports scene, which includes indoor skiing to surfing. Most travel insurance products on the market provide amateur enthusiasts with coverage for hazardous sports and activities. This ensures that, in the unfortunate event that the insured person sustains an injury, he or she not left stranded. Insurers stand behind their clients, offering robust support. In cases where prolonged treatment is necessary at hospitals within the GBA, resulting in a delay in returning to Hong Kong, travel insurance policies will step in to cover additional transportation expenses. The coverage often includes follow-up medical expenses upon returning to Hong Kong, and even covers fees for registered Chinese medicine practitioners. Moreover, the majority of insurers offer a 24-hour global travel assistance service, adding a layer of security to your journey so you can fully immerse yourself in your adventures with complete peace of mind.

In addition to travel insurance products, the majority of accident insurance policies on the market offer global personal accident coverage. This encompasses critical safety protection that insured people in the GBA are required to have, including coverage for accidental death, permanent disability, medical expenses, hospital cash allowance, trauma counselling, physiotherapy, chiropractic treatments, Chinese medicine and acupuncture costs, as well as extra compensation during public holidays.

To address the rise in short trips to the GBA, certain insurers have tripled the amount of accidental death compensation available to insured individuals who use public transport as paying passengers. In the unfortunate event of an accident, not only does the insurer provide medical coverage, such as surgical and hospitalisation benefits, but the coverage also extends to counselling and trauma support to help alleviate the mental strain caused by accidents. In the tragic instance of an accidental death, immediate family members may receive bereavement counselling to aid them through their bereavement.

Despite Hong Kong’s proximity to other cities within the GBA, unexpected events can turn usually familiar locations into what feel like unknown destinations. For peace of mind, travellers should consider holding both travel and personal accident insurance policies. While there might be overlaps in coverage, each offers unique features that supplement the other, doubling the reassurance. In the event of unforeseen circumstances, being comprehensively insured means you can truly relax as you enjoy all the experiences the GBA has to offer, worry-free.

This Chinese version of this article was published in the Hong Kong Economics Journal 

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Read more: Travelling in the Greater Bay Area? Don’t forget your accident insurance

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