"At the end of the slope is orthopedics." In recent days, with the help of the Winter Olympics, the public is gradually narrowing the distance with ice and snow sports, but because of its high-risk sports, it has also led to many safety hazards. In this context, the insurance related to ice and snow sports has ushered in the opportunity to "go out of the circle". On February 10, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily combed and found that some insurance companies have launched related insurance products to protect ice and snow sports projects and personnel. However, on the whole, due to the low penetration rate of ice and snow sports in the mainland, the number of ice and snow sports related insurance products is still limited. The collection of data on related risks and accidents in the future, the development and sales of products, etc., have also become mandatory questions for the "expansion" of such products.
"Ice and snow insurance" rides the wind
The enthusiasm of the Winter Olympics continues to ignite, making ice and snow sports a "favorite" of more people. Tongcheng travel big data shows that during this year's Spring Festival, the number of orders for ice and snow scenic spots nationwide increased by 68% compared with the same period last year's Spring Festival. In tandem, sales of related insurance products have also surged. The relevant person in charge of Ping An Property & Casualty Guangdong Branch told reporters that as of February 9, accident insurance sales including high-risk sports such as skiing increased by about 70% over the same period last year, and it is expected that accident insurance sales will continue to rise during the Winter Olympics.
Li Wenzhong, deputy director of the Insurance Department of the Capital University of Economics and Business, said that the people on the mainland, especially the "post-90s" and "post-00s", generally have a good sense of risk and insurance. More than 300 million people participate in ice and snow sports is a major opportunity for the development of the ice and snow sports insurance market, especially accident insurance.
It is understood that according to the different responsible entities involved in ice and snow sports accidents, the current market mainly includes more than ten types of insurance such as public liability insurance, organizer liability insurance, and skier accident insurance. Taking Beijing as an example, Li Mingxiao, director of the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau, mentioned that since 2020, four property insurance companies in Beijing have launched a total of 53 ice and snow-related insurance products, providing a total of 320.864 billion yuan of risk protection.
In fact, in the "Opinions on Promoting National Fitness and Sports Consumption to Promote the High-quality Development of the Sports Industry" issued in 2019, it was pointed out that insurance institutions are encouraged to actively develop relevant insurance products. In the "Several Opinions on Further Strengthening the Safety Management of Ice and Snow Sports Venues" issued by the General Administration of Sport and the seven departments in the same period, it was also pointed out that operators were encouraged to purchase public liability insurance and participants were encouraged to purchase accident insurance.
However, at present, the products developed by insurance companies on the market mainly include liability in accident insurance and travel accident insurance. "At present, there are still relatively few ice and snow sports insurance products on the market, and most insurance products are just a simple upgrade of ordinary accident insurance or travel accident insurance." Li Wenzhong said that in the past, the popularity of ice and snow sports in the mainland was not high, the insurance business related to insurance companies was limited, and insurance companies lacked data accumulation to design and price insurance liabilities.
Product development and sales are not difficult
In order to expand the capacity of high-risk sports insurance, product development and sales are difficult problems for insurance companies. "For insurance companies, the main difficulty in developing related insurance products is the collection of data on related risk accidents. Previously, some insurance companies launched high-risk sports insurance due to the overall insuring less, mostly drawing on foreign terms and experience data. The actual situation at home is still different from that abroad. When the overall business volume is small, the profit or loss is not large, and the impact on the insurance company is minimal. Once the business volume grows rapidly, insurers will face greater exposure to risk. At this time, it is necessary to determine the rates and terms according to the actual situation in the country. Yang Zeyun, a teacher in the Department of Finance at the School of Management of Beijing Union University, said.
How insurance companies work with channels is also one of the problems. Yang Zeyun believes that if the insurance company relies solely on its own channels, consumers can rarely think of and are willing to take the initiative to go to the channels of insurance companies to insure high-risk sports insurance. Integrating into high-risk sports scenes, such as with the help of tourism platforms or high-risk sports operators, is facing the embarrassing situation of low premiums for a single business and noisy channels.
So, in the context of the high enthusiasm for ice and snow sports for the whole people, in what ways can insurance companies "take advantage" to increase the participation rate of ice and snow sports insurance? Li Wenzhong believes that "first of all, insurance companies should optimize the insurance liability and insurance amount design of insurance products, especially to protect the main risks of ice and snow sports to meet the risk protection needs of different consumers." Secondly, according to the characteristics of ice and snow sports, we must do a good job in the construction of insurance product sales channels, in addition to using the Internet platform, we must also strengthen cooperation with ice and snow sports business sites. In addition, we should seize the opportunity of the Winter Olympics to do a good job in publicizing insurance companies and insurance products."
The relevant person in charge of Ping An Property & Casualty Guangdong Branch also told reporters that in terms of improving the insurance rate, the company will continue to optimize relevant insurance products, provide sufficient protection for accidental injuries caused by ice and snow sports such as skiing, and provide more cost-effective products; rely on online channels such as Ping An Insurance Good Life App to popularize scientific knowledge such as ice and snow sports and enhance public awareness of risk protection; and continuously strengthen online + offline channel cooperation to provide more convenient services.
Is high-risk sports feasible on their own?
In order to take advantage of the shareholder wind of the Winter Olympics, insurance companies should also continue to fill the diversified and personalized protection needs of customers with innovative products. Li Wenzhong believes that from the perspective of insurance companies developing ice and snow sports related insurance products, in the scope of product protection, ice and snow sports accident injury insurance can increase rescue protection, hospitalization allowance and other responsibilities in addition to the death, disability and medical protection responsibilities of ordinary accident injury insurance to meet the needs of ice and snow enthusiasts; ice and snow sports are more likely to appear dislocation, slight bone fracture, do not need too much treatment, but need to rest, so the resulting income loss can also be increased to the scope of insurance liability; it can also be damaged for ice and snow sports equipment. Loss is covered. In addition, there are many high-end customers among ice and snow enthusiasts, so insurance companies can consider providing high-end protection and high-end rescue services for this part of the consumer.
In ice and snow sports, the personal injury and property damage caused to third parties by the participants themselves cannot be ignored. For insurance companies to increase the coverage of ice and snow high-risk sports insurance, Yang Zeyun believes that it is also necessary to include accidental personal liability insurance liability, that is, in ice and snow sports, the third party's personal injury or property damage caused by accidents should be responsible for economic compensation according to law.
It is worth noting that some voices pointed out that more ski sports insurance is still essentially a general travel accident insurance package, and the specific risks of skiing need to be further considered, so how feasible is it for insurance companies to separately use high-risk sports insurance such as skiing as an insurance product? In this regard, Yang Zeyun believes that it is not important that ski sports insurance and travel insurance are integrated or independent. In practice, there are both high-risk sports insurance such as skiing that launch a separate insurance product, and high-risk sports insurance as an additional insurance for travel insurance or other accident insurance.
However, in Yang Zeyun's view, in theory, the isolation of high-risk sports insurance such as skiing as an insurance product is conducive to the development of high-risk sports insurance itself, and is also conducive to the transfer of risks faced by high-risk sports for consumers. Yang Zeyun also said that we should not make generalizations, but should keep pace with the times according to the actual situation. (Chen Tingting, Hu Yongxin)