The Nightmare Of Lost Travel Documents

One problem often faced by British holidaymakers is the loss of passport or travel documents. Although those that have so far been affected would assume that they are alone in it, recent statistics have shown there are nearly 2 million of such cases each year.

Of all the problems travellers may face while on holiday, the loss of travel documents is, perhaps, the most daunting. This is because it brings almost everything to a standstill for the unfortunate traveller – from feeling frustrated with the whole holiday or travel to getting stuck in a foreign place even if they choose to head back home etc. It becomes one serious problem around which their whole life revolves and a real pain that they find hard to easily get over.

In the end, said the study by Halifax Travel Insurance, travellers are forced to extend their stay while they sort the problem by at least three days. And this leads to an additional cost of up to £131 per person in extra accommodation and rescheduled flights etc. The overall total of the costs expended in this way is put at £389 million per year.

In addition to the above there may be other losses that are incurred as one fails to return to work at the expected or scheduled time. This could affect even the affected traveller’s productivity at work and much else.

While this cost, as enormous as they are, may be seen as just one misfortune or bad experience that could be put behind one, the reality is that it remains indelible in the people’s memory. Thus, taking every measure to prevent its occurrence is the best way to deal with it.

As earlier stated, having a very secure place to hide away essentials like travel documents is the first step to achieving this. It will help travellers deal with the threat of pick-pockets or burglars who could take away their documents. This takes us to the advice given by Halifax Travel Insurance that holidaymakers or travellers should avoid crowded tourist attractions, where questionable characters could target them with intent of pinching valuables.

Particularly, this issue calls for greater caution because the survey revealed that most travellers lose their passport or other valuables in places like this. And at least 15 per cent of victims were found to have had such experience.

Airports are, disturbingly, another site for such crime as 12 per cent of victims lose their passport or travel documents shortly after arrival or soon before departure. This worrying situation is further worsened by the fact that hotel accommodation where one would ordinarily expect some level of security is not as safe as people think. 11 per cent of such thefts are done in hotel rooms and travellers need to realise this and never fail to use a hotel safe to store vital documents.

Other places travellers need to worry about and avoid flaunting their documents are local streets, where they could be physically taken from them and 10 per cent of cases have happened, and restaurants and bars, in which 5 per cent of incidents have taken place.

While blaming factors outside individual travellers have been quite easy, people need to also worry about their own carelessness, where at least 5 per cent of problems were reported.

Although these issues are really provoking concerns among travellers and experts, even as precautionary measures are taken, adequate travel insurance cover could considerable save people of the trauma they may face if problems like this occur.