New Zealand’s largest travel insurer, Southern Cross Travel Insurance, will halve its full-time staff as the sector battles the financial fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has decimated global tourism.

In Australia, nib Travel says it is cutting employee hours as it continues to deal with the impact of the pandemic.

Travel insurers have hit unprecedented hard times, with flights grounded and borders closed, claims up and premium refunds being demanded.

Zurich-owned Cover-More, which holds a dominant 30.7% revenue share of the $1.2 billion Australian travel insurance market, retrenched a portion of its 2300-strong workforce last month.

Close to 10% of Cover-More workers globally have been stood down and the hours of remaining employees have been cut.

At nib Travel, CEO Anna Gladman says she has taken advantage of Australia’s JobKeeper Payment Scheme to help avoid staff cuts, though hours have still been cut back.

“When this crisis passes and travel bounces back as we expect it will, we should be ready and well placed to take advantage of significant market and growth opportunities,” she said.

Auckland-based Southern Cross Travel will cut its full-time workforce by July 10 to 45 from 90. It had a 116-strong workforce before letting temporary staff and contractors go as the pandemic struck and borders closed.

CEO Chris White told his team that a “strong return to international travel, our core business, is unlikely in the medium term”.

“Like many others in the travel sector, we have been severely impacted by the pandemic, and as a result we are looking to reduce costs and scale down our workforce for the immediate future,” Mr White said.