Dogtag Expands Into North American Travel Insurance Market

DOGTAG, the UK's best known travel insurance brand for activity and sport-oriented travellers today launched in the USA and Canada – www.dogtag-usa.com At a time of weak and potentially faltering recovery in most economies, good-news stories and instances of international expansion are few and far between. Internet-based Dogtag run to an almost entirely virtual, low-overhead business model that is allowing safe expansion into the rebounding North American travel insurance market. Today the company has put out press launch material across the news and sports media sectors delivering their unique identity-based travel system to US and Canadian customers.

The US Launch Mike Welby, joint founder of Dogtag said, "For quite a while now our reputation has been leaking out across the Atlantic and we've had regular enquiries from North American travellers looking for Dogtag travel insurance; it seems that there's no equivalent to Dogtag across the pond. "Of course, as a British insurer, we couldn't cover US or Canadian residents; that would take a locally underwritten product. Also, we didn't feel that the time was right to have a go in the US or Canadian market; we didn't have an insurance product that we felt was right for the north American market and we had our hands full with the development of Dogtag in the UK." Now Dogtag Ltd's US subsidiary, Dogtag Inc has partnered with Travel Guard, one of America's largest and best known travel insurance specialists. "We needed to find an underwriter with the flexibility and willingness to provide the sort of cover that our particular customer demographic is looking for. US travel insurance products can often be complex and confusing and that's not the Dogtag way. And Americans insure their travel differently from Europeans; different emphasis is placed on certain areas of cover like trip cancellation. Travel Guard have been superb in helping us build a product that's absolutely apt for the typical Dogtag customer's needs, translated to a North American scenario. We're very pleased with the relationship." The Future So what plans does Dogtag have for further expansion? "Well, we're not in the game of making ill-researched forays into different travel market sectors," said Dave Rice, Welby's partner and co-founder of Dogtag, "As with the North American project, our strategy is keep our products niche and more-or-less to let the market opportunities make themselves evident to us. We think we're good at what we do, and that is to identify markets that require a certain level of niche specialisation and to home in on getting the product right for the customers' needs in that niche. "We're currently working one or two new travel products and are looking at other specialist niche markets. One of these is highly specialist and we'll be announcing that in two months' time. One investment that we've made over the last year is the development of a brand new and highly secure, on-line insurance transaction engine that will enable us to adapt and grow with the changing market, something that we've found difficult with our previous technology. The North American site runs on this technology and it was pioneered last December with the launch of a specialist product for snowsports professionals." What is the Dogtag System? DOGTAG 100% Proof Travel Insurance is more than just travel insurance. We issue every insured person a personalised stainless steel Dogtag and it serves 3 purposes:  It carries the 24-Hour Emergency Information - this means you'll always have emergency contact numbers on your person while on your travels.  It carries your Name and your Unique Dogtag identity Number - this means you can easily identify yourself if you need to call us and it also means you don't need to go looking for paperwork. It carries the Dogtag Emergency Web Address & Phone Number - this enables you or, say, a medic treating you, to go online and by logging in to your own emergency page, find important information which you have displayed there. This could simply be to prove that you're insured, see your next of kin's contact details, your doctor's contact details and check any vital medical information that you have entered on your account. Notes For Editors Established in 2001, Dogtag is the automatic choice for action-minded travellers whether they are skiers, boarders, divers, sailors, or adventure travellers. Covering hundreds of sports, it offers great value annual multi-trip, single trip and gap year products all with options to choose the level of sport cover and policy limits required. Dogtag UK – www.dogtag.co.uk Dogtag USA & Canada – www.dogtag-usa.com For further media information and images contact mike@dogtag.co.uk Dogtag Ltd, 10 Lochside Place, Edinburgh, EH12 9RG; Tel: 0131 248 3090 Dogtag Inc, 140 Broadway, New York City New York NY 10005, USA HQ@dogtag.net.