SEOUL, Oct. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Insurance companies are seeing a precipitous drop in the number of people subscribing to travel insurance policies as more people are choosing to stay home over Chuseok holiday due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The General Insurance Association of Korea reported that 43,961 people signed up for travel insurance over Chuseok holiday, which was an 87.7 percent drop compared to last year (357,939).
Over the past five years, more people have been signing up for travel insurance each year, going from 175,000 people in 2015 to 358,000 people in 2019.
The coronavirus outbreak, however, has overturned such a trend as foreign travel has essentially come to a halt, hurting insurance companies.
Insurance companies collected 7.7 billion won (US$6.5 million) in premiums for travel insurance this year, which is merely half of the 13.3 billion won they earned last year.
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