The beginning of the new millennium will be remembered as one of the worst times for event organizers world-wide. A sequence of disastrous events caused hundreds of thousands tourists to cancel their holidays. Weddings, family events, children’s summer camps, and thousands of commercial events and conventions were cancelled. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, terror attacks caused not only direct vast damages but also collateral damage to millions of individuals and businesses.
The resulting financial damage is huge. Empty hotels, lost deposits, travel agencies with no income, airliners that fly almost empty, lost income to wholesalers, organizers and many individuals and the list goes on. The estimated losses are stated in billions of dollars (according to the publications of the numerous insurance companies).
This scenario is familiar to the insurance industry: those companies who write Travel Insurance that includes a Cancellation Fees Clause; those who write Special Events with Cancellation Fees Clauses; and those insurance companies who write Political Coverage (many of which are state-owned organizations).
Although this scenario is...