I was interested, but not surprised, to learn this week that London has overtaken Paris as the most popular city in the world for tourism, with 16.8 million visitors checking out Buckingham Palace and the like in 2013.
On sharing this news with friends, they were all universally sceptical – citing our climate as the main reason why they were surprised so many foreigners are flocking to our shores.
Personally, I think our weather is one of Britain’s most attractive features; mild yet atmospheric Winter, crisp and colourful Spring and Autumn and warm but comfortable Summers. What’s not to like?
Another plus is (barring rare exceptions) our lack of dangerous weather events. You won’t find Brits cowering in cellars to evade hurricanes or fleeing to high ground in the wake of a tsunami. No active volcanoes trouble our residents and the tectonic plates on which we sit are reassuringly stable.
However, even in our idyllic part of the world, Mother Nature can cause us health problems. You may not have noticed (since in many parts of the country it was slightly ironic in its timing) but the start of May welcomed Sun Awareness Week.
As part of the ‘Sun Awareness’ campaign organised by the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD), Sun Awareness Week aims to raise awareness of skin cancer and exposure to the sun. A worthwhile initiative given the fact that 12,800 new cases of malignant melanoma are diagnosed in the UK each year and almost 100,000 non-melanoma skin cancers are registered.
As with all cancers, skin cancer takes many forms and presents itself across many levels of severity, with extreme cases becoming terminal, as confirmed by the 585 deaths from non-melanoma skin cancer in the UK in 2011.
Just like other illnesses, it is vital that Protection insurance covers as many variants of the disease as possible – after all, clients don’t really think about what sort of cancer they’ve been diagnosed with, they simply hear the word “cancer”.
Clients don’t really think about what sort of cancer they’ve been diagnosed with, they simply hear the word “cancer”Our Comprehensive Serious Illness Cover is unique in the market in covering even non-malignant skin cancers on diagnosis alone. You can find out more about this cover and many others by visiting pruprotect.co.uk/vitality. There you can also find out how our health and rewards programme Vitality, can help with the early detection of illnesses such as skin cancer with discounted health screenings.
Hopefully this has convinced you to talk to your clients about the need for adequate cover (both in the literal sense when out in the sun and financially). If you remain unconvinced about Britain’s appeal as a tourist haven, don’t worry, neither are the Parisians. As an aide to the Mayor of Paris told the press “The new British figures will be analysed, but they sound fanciful. Visitor numbers to Paris are impressive and unrivalled”. No sour chardonnay grapes there then.
Justin Taurog is Distribution and Marketing Director at PruProtect
