WARWICK – Worldwide fears of swine flu meant a big uptick in activity last week at Warwick-based travel insurance company IMT Services Corp., which runs the Web site InsureMyTrip.com.
Spokeswoman Vikki Corliss told PBN that call volume to the company’s Customer Care Center in Warwick nearly doubled last week as customers flooded the company with inquiries about travel insurance coverage for swine flu.
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The company quickly added a new Swine Flu Coverage Tool to its Web site in an effort to help customers sort out which types of travel insurance would cover the disease’s impact on their vacation plans.
“We are getting a lot of calls today from people who are concerned that the airlines might cancel their flights because of the Swine Flu outbreak,” an insurance analyst named Becky wrote on the company’s blog last Tuesday. “Unfortunately, the consensus so far among the travel insurance providers is that they will not provide trip cancellation coverage if the airline refuses to fly into a Swine Flu area.”
The site was also name-checked in stories in Time magazine and on CNN.com and Examiner.com that offered advice to travelers.
Jim Grace, InsureMyTrip’s president and CEO, said in a news release that the company was “monitoring the Swine Flu situation in real time and its impact on travelers and travel insurance.” He recommended that travelers review policies closely to make sure they found the right one.
The influenza outbreak comes as InsureMyTrip prepares to roll out a new multimillion-dollar operating system that they are calling “IMT 2.0.” It will be the first update of the company’s system since it was launched in 2000.
