Travel insurance that actually works when you need it

Travel insurance is the line item most organisations spend the least time on and the line item that matters most when something goes wrong. The default policies bundled with corporate cards are rarely fit for purpose — and the time to find out is not at 2am in a foreign hospital, holding a phone to an assistance line that does not pick up.

Cover that performs is not necessarily the most expensive cover. It is cover that has been specified against the actual trip profile, written by an underwriter who understands African operational realities, and arranged with an assistance provider whose response time has been tested rather than promised.

What corporate travel insurance should cover

• Emergency medical and hospitalisation, with direct billing where possible (no upfront deposits)
• Medical evacuation and repatriation, with a named assistance provider and a stated air ambulance capability
• Trip cancellation and curtailment for documented reasons, including illness, bereavement and security incidents
• Lost or delayed baggage with a realistic per-item cap, not a token sum
• Personal liability and legal expenses abroad
• 24/7 multilingual assistance line, not a claims form to be completed after the event
• Cover for high-risk activities relevant to the work (field visits, mining sites, conflict-adjacent locations) where required

Cover gaps to interrogate

Read the exclusions before the inclusions. Common gaps include pre-existing conditions without declaration, high-risk activities (which often catches field work), travel against government advisories, mental-health support, dental emergencies beyond pain relief, and any incident in countries on a sanctions list. Each gap is fixable — but only if you know it exists before departure.

How Tulla handles traveller insurance

We arrange traveller insurance as part of the booking workflow, not as an afterthought. Cover is matched to the trip profile — corporate, group, field-heavy, executive, exposure mission — and the certificate sits inside the traveller's documentation pack alongside their visa and itinerary. When a claim happens, the assistance line is the same number that confirmed their hotel.

What changes for groups

Group cover is rarely just individual cover multiplied. We negotiate group policies that account for the actual movement: shared itinerary, shared exposure, single point of contact for the assistance provider, simplified certificate distribution. It is faster to activate during an incident and usually more economical than 30 individual certificates issued separately.

Frequently asked

Is the insurance bundled with my corporate card enough? For most business travel into developed markets, occasionally. For group travel, field-heavy programmes, or travel into emerging markets, almost never. Card-based cover is built for individual leisure travellers and the exclusions are designed accordingly.