Travel Insurance Trends Report: Q3 2026

About Our Data

Squaremouth is the nation’s largest travel insurance marketplace, with more than 4.7 million insured customers and 23+ years of market data. The following data reflects real traveler behavior drawn from thousands of travel insurance purchases made through the Squaremouth platform. Unlike other industry reports based on surveys or estimates, our data reflects actual trends from finalized insurance purchases.

This report is not a comprehensive look at the travel insurance industry; it’s a focused collection of observations and key trends from our own sales data.

All data on this page is available for media use. Please credit Squaremouth.com when citing.

Skip Ahead To Topics We Cover

• Travel Demand Climbs, As Trip Cost Growth Slows For The First Time This Year
• Changing Weather Dictates Where & When Americans Travel
• The World Cup Leads To A Spike In Fall Travel for Participating Nations

Travel Demand Climbs, As Trip Cost Growth Slows For The First Time This Year

2026 has been a year of record traveler spending, with trip costs reaching a 20-year high in Q1 and traveler spending growing by 17.4% year-over-year in Q2. Until now, that trend showed no signs of slowing, with travelers previously reporting they were prioritizing bigger travel budgets this year amid growing market pressures.

“All of our data points to travelers essentially treating their vacations as a non-negotiable expense, choosing to find savings elsewhere so they can keep on traveling,” says Jacqueline Mondelli, Chief Marketing Officer at Squaremouth. “Travel has turned into something people are budgeting for rather than giving it up altogether.”

That said, softer growth in spend doesn’t mean travelers are pulling back across the board. Instead, Q3 data shows two divergent trends:

1. Budget travelers are scaling back
2. High-end travelers are ramping up

Luxury Travelers Lean In, While Budget Travelers Pull Back

Logic dictates that high-net-worth travelers typically are more willing to spend even as prices rise, but that alone doesn’t explain the sizable jump in luxury bookings this quarter.

In Q2, Squaremouth asked customers how their 2026 travel spending would compare to last year. 23% said they planned to spend more this year to get a premium or bucket-list experience. In Q3, we began to see that come to fruition in the booking data.

• In Q3, Squaremouth saw a 27.2% jump versus the previous year for insured trips costing $30,000 or more.
• This number dwarfs the growth in total insured trips (+12.9%) by more than double.
• While luxury bookings rose, insured trips under $10,000 declined by 2.3% over the same period, showing budget travelers are pulling back.

Q3 coincides with peak summer travel season and the primary booking window for luxury safari vacations (July - September). Average prepaid trip costs for top safari destinations ranged from $24,000 to $37,000 per trip, falling well within the segment of trips that saw the largest growth in demand this quarter.

Destination-level data shows the same pattern:

Changing Weather Dictates Where & When Americans Travel

Fall Becomes Europe’s New Peak Travel Season

In Q3, record heat across most of Europe led to travel disruptions, including the suspension of rail networks and closures at tourist attractions like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Senior travelers and those with underlying health risks were most affected.

A survey of more than 5,400 Squaremouth customers, from July to mid-August, found that:

• 62% of travelers reported being less likely to book a European trip next summer due to the heat.
• Nearly 1 in 5 (18%) travelers cancelled, altered, or reconsidered their summer travel plans in favor of a fall trip.
• Of travelers who reported altering their existing travel plans due to extreme heat:
  • 48% changed their travel dates
  • 32% chose a different destination altogether
• Heat impacted older travelers the most, with the likelihood of avoiding a European summer trip next year rising with age:
  • Gen Z (59.0%), Millennials (55.8%), Gen X (59.1%), Baby Boomers (64.4%), and the Silent Generation (70.1%).

The two groups that reported being the most likely to avoid booking travel to Europe next summer (Baby Boomers & Silent Generation) posted the smallest travel increases of any generation this quarter, up 7.8% and 5.8% year-over-year, respectively. Gen Z and Millennials, the least heat-averse, led all generations in year-over-year travel growth, up 15.4% and 10.4%.

For travelers rescheduling rather than relocating, fall bookings (September & October) are climbing sharply across several traditional summer destinations. Examples include Croatia (+31.2%), Italy (+11.4%), Greece (+8.2%), and Norway, which saw the largest increase of +31.2%, in part due to its popularity during the World Cup.

“We could see fall overtake summer as the most popular travel season, as early as 2027, especially if heat continues to be a factor in travelers rescheduling their planned trips,” said Chrissy Valdez, Senior Director of Operations at Squaremouth. “If older travelers are simply waiting out the heat rather than skipping travel altogether, it could also make for an active winter season.”

Travelers Seek Out Countries with Cooler Climates

It’s no secret that cooler destinations, popularized by the term “Coolcations,” have been growing in popularity in recent years, and this trend continued to gain steam in Q3.

This summer, five destinations with cool climates ranked among the top 20 travel destinations based on Squaremouth booking data (June through August):

• Iceland (9th)
• Ireland (12th)
• Switzerland (14th)
• Norway (16th)
• Netherlands (17th)

This shows that not all travelers are willing or able to wait to travel during cooler months. Instead, many are choosing to opt for alternate destinations to maintain their travel dates.

Record Low Hurricane Season Drives Caribbean Travel

The 2026 hurricane season has already set a record as one of the quietest starts to a hurricane season in 60 years, thanks to an expected Super El Niño event. This trend is leading travelers to take advantage of traditionally lower prices in the hurricane-prone Caribbean.

Our internal booking data shows that insured trips to the Caribbean are up by roughly +18% year-over-year, with several destinations marking gains of over +25%.

Data represents trips insured for comprehensive travel insurance policies sold on Squaremouth.com, with travel dates between July 1 and September 30, 2026.

While these destinations represent an unusual opportunity for travelers to enjoy the Caribbean in fall with relative safety, the slower season doesn’t rule out the possibility of a named storm impacting their trip.

Chrissy Valdez, Senior Director of Operations at Squaremouth, notes “The value for travelers in the Caribbean right now is exceptional, but hurricane season is still active, so we recommend locking in storm coverage as soon as you’ve booked your trip.”

As a reminder, your coverage options are greatly reduced once a storm is named, and CFAR remains one of the only options for cancellation protection once a storm has been forecasted. CFAR is available within 14-21 days of your initial trip deposit and can only reimburse between 50% and 75% of your prepaid non-refundable trip costs.

The World Cup Leads To A Spike In Fall Travel for Participating Nations

The 2026 FIFA World Cup was the largest in the history of the tournament, hosted in 16 cities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. With matches on home soil, it broke U.S. television viewership records, giving American audiences weeks of exposure to the competing nations.

This appears to have driven a tangible impact on fall travel. Argentina and Spain, this year’s finalists, saw a combined 26.6% year-on-year increase in fall trips insured with September and October travel dates.

• Argentina: +55.9%
• Spain: +23.6%

Other countries that advanced in the tournament also saw notable growth:

• Morocco: +34.2%
• Egypt: +26.4%
• Brazil: +15.3%
• Norway: +14.3%
• Canada: +13.1%

Notably, travel demand grew in months immediately following the event, showing that this isn’t a trend driven by subliminal exposure. Rather, travelers are making a conscious decision to seek out travel to nations that were popularized during the World Cup.

What This Means For Future Sporting Events

Hosting a major sports event alone is expected to drive additional travel demand, as evidenced by the 1.2 million travelers this year’s World Cup welcomed. However, the more interesting trend to watch is whether a team’s success drives travel to its home country in the months after the event.

Upcoming events we’re keeping an eye on include the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil and the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. Countries worth watching:

• FIFA Women’s World Cup teams expected to make a deep run: United States, England, Germany, Sweden, or reigning champion Spain
• Summer Olympics teams that are stronger medal contenders in their individual sports: Australia (swimming), Jamaica (sprinting), and Brazil or Japan (gymnastics)