US consumers spend $1.72 billion on travel protection in 2020
In 2020, Americans spent approximately US$1.72 billion on all types of travel protection, according to the recently released 2018-2020 Travel Protection Market Study conducted for the US Travel Insurance Association (UStiA)
This represents a substantial reduction (just over $2 billion) since the prior study from the 2016 to 2018 period due to the impact of Covid-19 on leisure travel. Approximately 36 million people were protected by more than 24.1 million plans provided by UStiA members in 2020. This also represents a substantial reduction in people covered by travel protection by over 28 million and just over 22 million fewer plans sold during the 2016 to 2018 period. Consumers purchased these plans through distribution channels such as travel suppliers, travel agents, travel insurance providers, internet aggregators, and insurance producers.
Trip cancellation/interruption packages remain the most popular choice of plan. Plans that include trip cancellation/interruption benefits account for nearly 88 per cent of the travel protection products purchased in 2020. Forty-seven per cent of trip cancellation claims were Covid-related in 2020, according to the UStiA study.