Why Mandatory Travel Insurance Isn’t Always Enough
Caribbean countries are seeing a spike in American tourists due to widespread border closures amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In light of this increase in tourism, four of these popular destinations – Brazil, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Turks and Caicos – now require travelers to purchase insurance. However, travel insurance comparison site, Squaremouth, explains why this required coverage may not offer enough protection for travelers’ one main concern.
Required Plans Only Offer Medical Benefits
The coverage provided by mandatory insurance is often limited, as it typically only covers medical emergencies that occur in the destination.
“It’s not uncommon for countries to require visitors to have some type of travel insurance,” explains Squaremouth CMO, Megan Moncrief. “In 2020, we predicted more countries would begin requiring visitors to have medical coverage, due to the extensive treatment Covid-positive visitors may need.”
With a drastic shift in open destinations, four of Squaremouth’s current top 10 destinations require their own form of government-issued medical insurance upon entry.
Most Popular Coverage Not Included
While this medical coverage can save travelers money in the event they require treatment, it doesn’t offer additional, in-demand benefits.
Following the impacts of COVID-19, the majority of travelers are prioritizing trip cancellation coverage to protect their investments. About 75% of all travel insurance policies purchased since the pandemic began have included coverage to cancel a trip.
Cancellation coverage has become so important to travelers, they are willing to pay more in order to have complete flexibility to cancel. Squaremouth reports that travelers are nearly three times more likely to buy the Cancel For Any Reason upgrade now than they were prior to the Covid pandemic. Cancel For Any Reason allows travelers to cancel their trip for a reason that is not otherwise covered up until 2 days prior to departure and receive 75% reimbursement.
Travelers visiting these destinations that also want cancellation coverage can save money by purchasing a policy that includes trip cancellation benefits with low or no medical coverage.
Methodology: Squaremouth hosts the largest number of travel insurance providers and policies that offer covered related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The data in this report is based on all travel insurance policies purchased through Squaremouth.com between October 1, 2020 – February 8, 2021. Statistics reflect year-over-year changes unless otherwise noted. Squaremouth compared data from thousands of policies in identifying these trends.