Finaccord has released a dedicated consumer study across ten key markets, revealing in detail how the travel insurance landscape has changed across different geographies and demographic groups.

Key findings include:

As expected, there has been huge disruption to underlying travel markets: international travel was most impacted, especially among older travellers. The proportion of older travellers (55 plus) taking a trip abroad over a two-year period fell from 44% to 22% between Finaccord’s previous survey carried out in 2017 compared to its survey in 2022; this was much larger than a drop of 46% to 38% in the 18 to 34 age band over the same periods. Domestic travel also suffered, though the decline was less drastic than for international travel.

As a result, the type of policy that travellers purchase has changed: domestic-only policies accounted for a quarter of policies acquired in the 2022 survey, up from 9% in 2017. In contrast, standard policies fell from 73% to 44%, while all other non-standard policies (e.g. for backpackers, older travellers or people with pre-existing medical conditions) were marginally more popular among insured travellers.

Claims are up generally, though claims acceptance rates have remained stable: claims rates increased to 14% in 2022 from 10% in 2017 as an average for these ten countries, with countries like Canada and the UK seeing claims frequency double. Despite this, claims acceptance rates remained remarkably consistent in most countries. COVID-19 was a factor in 56% of claims reported by respondents.

Most consumers are willing to pay more for travel insurance in future: with the exceptions of France and the US, a majority of respondents in all of the countries surveyed by Finaccord are willing to pay more for travel insurance in the future if it includes pandemic cover.

Source: Yahoo Finance