New Liability Insurance package launched for outdoor adventure, recreation and tourism activities

May 31, 2022

Affinity Insurance Brokers has announced the launch of a new Outdoors Adventure, Leisure and Tourism Insurance package.

An Aon owned business based in the Melbourne-suburb of Cheltenham, Affinity Insurance Brokers (AIB) are a market leader in the outdoor industry, a position that has been strengthened through a new partnership with global insurance professional Beazley.

Part of Aon’s Affinity division, AIB has been providing specialist support for the equine, sport, and leisure industries for the past 18 years, providing innovative industry insurance and risk management solutions.

After working on an industry specific liability product for almost 12 months, Affinity Insurance Brokers and Beazley Underwriters have entered a binder arrangement with $20,000,000 capacity, largely thanks to the support of outdoor industry bodies including the Outdoor Council of Australia, Outdoors NSW and ACT and Outdoors Victoria.

Lisa Henderson, Managing Director of Aon’s Affinity business in Australia, advised “the partnership with Beazley enables us to continue to support our clients and grow this market by providing a tailored, direct, and connected experience backed by Affinity Insurance Broker’s team of experienced outdoor and leisure broking professionals. “

The new liability product will offer an occurrence-based wording for the outdoor education, tourism, adventure activities, caravan parks and campsites sectors whose activities fall under existing accreditation systems and/or the Australian Adventure Activity Standards (AAAS).

Initially Affinity Insurance Brokers have been limiting access to the new scheme to renewals for their existing clients.

Affinity Insurance Brokers Client Director, Paul Davenport stated “our commitment is to our clients and the long-term future of the outdoor industry, to ensure competitive and sustainable insurance solutions in a traditionally hard to place market.

“Our new relationship provides increased underwriting capabilities, improved claims support and at last some stability for this market segment”.

To be able to address the key operational risks associated with the outdoor industry and ensure the long-term sustainability of the portfolio, Affinity will be focusing on a direct to client business model but, they will continue to partner with key third party brokers on the renewal of existing placements.

The liability insurance solution is based on robust risk management frameworks supported by existing industry accreditation systems. In addition to this the insurer will be relying on a new educational initiative which will be available in July 2022 and will focus on the key operational risks associated with many of the activity-based businesses including:

Staff Recognised Qualifications/Training/Induction/Supervision
Maintenance and Inspection
Operating Procedures
Incident Management and Emergency Response
Risk Assessments
Third Party Site Inspections
Activity specific accreditations

The pilot education program, developed in partnership with Outdoors NSW and ACT, will address the needs of a range of stakeholders including landowners (private and parks agencies), schools and state education departments, insurers, employees and consumers.

Lori Modde, Chief Executive of Outdoors NSW and ACT and a board member of the Outdoors Council of Australia, commented “it has been increasingly clear that the Outdoor industry needed to lead in benchmarking its processes to give its stakeholders faith and certainty of the risk management and operational processes.

“This program is part of a larger strategic process which will result in working with current and new accreditation systems that give the industry long-term assurity of insurance coverage. I am confident we are moving in the right direction for the industry and thank Affinity for supporting this initiative”.

Greg Shallard, Specialities Client Manager at Affinity Insurance Brokers, added “we are excited by this initiative, Australia has many quality operations however historically whilst there are various codes of practice, there hasn’t been a robust framework in place for key stakeholders to benchmark activity providers against.

“The key goal with our support for this is to recognise the quality operators in the industry and lift the overall standard to ensure the delivery of a safe and enjoyable experience for participants with the additional outcome of creating a sustainable insurance environment for businesses.”

The new Outdoors Adventure, Leisure and Tourism Insurance package has been available since 1st May.

For more information call 1300 130 535 or go to www.affinityib.com.au

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