You trust your people. You trust your guides, your instructors, your mechanics, and your drivers. But sometimes bad things happen to the best people and businesses. Traffic accidents damage vehicles and injure sightseers, inexperienced tourists get injured on scuba dives and end up in the hospital, normally docile dolphins become inexplicably jealous and attack patrons, and zip lines that have recently been inspected break, plunging tourists into the jungle.

These may sound like worst-case, nightmare scenarios, but they have all happened to excursion operators in the past few years. You hope these things will never happen to you, and work hard to make sure they never do. But when they do, you will be glad you have an excursion insurance policy that has your business fully covered. 

Perhaps you have a business that takes adventurous visitors whitewater kayaking. One tourist flips their kayak. The kayak is repeatedly banged against the rocks while the patron tries to get upright. They recover and finish their excursion, but the fractures in the kayak have let in water that damaged their $1,200 SLR camera. They’re covered with bruises and cuts, and a medical team has to be called in. They take the now patient to the hospital, where they receive care. They threaten to sue you for their medical bills and their lost camera, and on top of it all you’re down a kayak.

If you have an excursion insurance policy with adequate coverage, you’ll have little to worry about. The kayak’s damage, medical bills, and camera (or personal property) will all be covered under the Contingent General Liability portion of your policy.

It’s possible that everything went right on the excursion; there were no injuries, the kayak didn’t flip, and everyone’s healthy and happy. On the way back to their port of destination, however, your shuttle van swerves when it hits a pothole in the legendarily bumpy road, sending the vehicle into the trees. Luckily, no one is injured, but the van has sustained serious damage to its front-end and requires thousands of dollars worth of work. The damage is beyond what your locale required your auto insurance policy to cover, and you don’t know how you’re going to pay to have it fixed. 

Unless you have the proper excursion insurance policy with Contingent Auto Liability coverage. This coverage goes above and beyond what your regular auto policy covers, and can insure vehicles that you own, hire or do not own.

Maybe instead of white-water kayaking you have your licensed employees take cruise-goers out for a tour of the cay on some jet skis for the day while they’re shoreside. Your guides know the waters in and out, but somehow one of the plugs on a jet ski got damaged. No one knew that it happened, and it ended up submerging the vehicle and its engine once it was docked. You now have to attempt to drain the engine, call in the repairman, or both. The entire vehicle may not be salvageable.

Times like these are when you’ll be glad you have a policy that covers your specific motorized water vehicles with Contingent Watercraft Liability coverage. A good policy will cover your specific watercraft according to its function.

No one ever expects the worst to happen, but when it does, it’s good to have the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’re insured at least in accordance with your local authorities’ and the cruise lines’ regulations, but preferably beyond.

If you need excursion insurance for your tour or excursion, you can get a quick quote by clicking here.