110 år med individuel og innovativ rejseforsikring

 

ETIG is celebrating an important anniversary

 

The principal provider in Europe‘s travel insurance industry is celebrating its 110th anniversary. Innovation, flexibility and internationality have been the driving forces of a successful association right from the beginning. Expansion, continuous product optimization and technological innovation characterize each of the 20 member companies.

 

“A success story lasting 110 years is the best proof that each local company knows how to react appropriately to its customers’ needs and the individual challenges!” comments Richard Bader, president of ETIG. It is not only about being present in the market for 110 successful years – the founder of this association, the Hungarian timber merchant, Max von Engel, is even referred to as the inventor of travel insurance.

 

After Max von Engel died, the first international association of "Europeans" was founded at Berne in 1933 under the name of "Intereurop". As a result of World War II the various "Europeans" more or less lost contact with each other and were separated from Munich Re to a large extent.Inspired by an experience at the railway station of Lucerne, Switzerland, when the flying sparks from the chimney of a steam locomotive almost set his luggage on fire, the young timber merchant von Engel had the idea of insuring luggage. This inspiration was supported by Carl von Thieme, founder of the former Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft, today Munich Re. In 1907 Max von Engel founded the “Europäische Güter- und Reisegepäckversicherungs-AG (later called the ”European“). Based on contracts with the railway companies, only six years later the company was represented in virtually all European countries and beyond. It expanded further rapidly: in the late 1920s the number of “European” companies grew to 22, e.g. in countries such as Yugoslavia, Romania, Latvia, Norway, Finland and the Czech Republic.

 

The "Europeans" renewed their agreement in 1946, met regularly each year and incorporated the "Internationaler Verein von Europäischen Reiseversicherern" (IVE) under Swiss law in 1955.

 

In 1992 the company was renamed the “International Association of ‘European’ Travel Insurers (IAE)” and operates since 2002 as the European Travel Insurance Group. It is a quality label for the international network of travel specialists who are the leading travel insurance companies in their home countries.

 

In 2016 all the ETIG members together accounted for a total turnover of about € 928 million which represented an increase of about 3% compared to previous year – a fact which underlines and reinforces the leading position of ETIG in travel insurance in Europe.

 

 

 

ETI Group is an alliance of twenty EUROPEAN travel insurers in Amsterdam, Basle, Bratislava, Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, Gdansk, Helsinki, Istanbul, Kiev, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Oslo, Prague, Stockholm and Vienna.

 

This network of EUROPEANs, with its worldwide support structure, guarantees prompt, efficient and satisfactory claims handling and assistance for the traveller.