HanseMerkur: Travel and Leisure division presents good annual results
Hamburg, March 5, 2020. The growth in the Travel and Leisure division of HanseMerkur continues under the cooperation and travel sales director Johannes Ganser. The manager, who has been in office since July 2019, expanded the Swiss market, adjusted the structure of his department and brought new management personnel on board.
The Travel and Leisure business area of HanseMerkur remained on the road to success in the 2019 financial year. Premium income grew by 3.6 percent or EUR 8.4 million to EUR 239.4 million (2018: EUR 231.0 million). The premiums received in travel health insurance rose by 6.8 percent to EUR 110.4 million. The travel cancellation division moved 0.3 percent to 111.6 million euros. 2020 also got off to a strong start: Compared to the first two months of the previous year, premium income in the business area in Germany increased by 3.8 percent. In Austria, HanseMerkur achieved a 14 percent increase in premium income in 2019, posting double-digit growth for the seventh time in a row.
Personnel reinforcement in Switzerland
Fuad Izmirlija has appointed HanseMerkur International AG (HMI), which works for HanseMerkur in the Swiss market. The 49-year-old from Vienna will continue to serve as Country Manager Austria and Switzerland for HanseMerkur. “Together with my team, I have decided to develop Swiss travel insurance sales via our Liechtenstein location as successfully as we have been able to do in Austria since 2012,” says Izmirlija. He receives support from Simone Jegge, who joined HMI in January as Regional Sales Manager Switzerland.
Restructuring of travel sales under new management
At the beginning of the year, HanseMerkur restructured its travel sales. Tourist and non-tourist partners from Germany are now looked after in the “Travel Sales Germany” area under the direction of Katrin Rieger. The sales expert most recently worked as Senior Director Customer Experience & Product at Eurowings in Cologne and moved to HanseMerkur at the beginning of the year.
All offline and online activities outside of Germany are bundled in the new area “International and Online Travel Sales” under the direction of Vera Scheuermann. Scheuermann has been with HanseMerkur since 2015, most recently as Sales Director Online & International Sales.
“We want to support our partners even better, both in Germany and internationally, and both offline and online,” said board member Johannes Ganser. “In our structure, we already reflect this through industry professionals Katrin Rieger and Vera Scheuermann.”
Major partnership renewals and new websites
HanseMerkur has also extended important partnerships with the tourism companies l’tur, DERPART and Eurowings for several years. In addition, all country websites of the travel division have been completely revised. Specifically, hmrv.de, hansemerkur.at, hansemerkur.pl and hansemerkur.ch appear in a fresh look and functionally up to date.