Our advice to buy travel insurance
Last summer, the research because of fears swirling swine flu, Katherine Walls friend and travel insurance options for their journey to a remote region of Peru. It was found that epidemics Arent walls are covered in more traditional, so as to cancel for whatever reason, decided to reports.
The walls have been some important changes have been in this sector of the travel industry. Travel Insurance purchased once a variety of products is rather limited, sometimes a last minute kind of life insurance at the airport by nervous flyers. But in the last 10 years, the industry has grown and diversified significantly, there are now all kinds of la-carte options for coverage.
Walls benefited from some big changes that have come to this sector of the travel industry. Travel insurance used to be a pretty limited product, sometimes a last-minute form of life insurance bought at the airport by nervous fliers. But over the past 10 years, the industry has evolved and diversified considerably; there are now everything from à la carte options to blanket coverage.
And Americans have responded, spending $1.6 billion on travel insurance last year, according to the US Travel Insurance Association, a growth of more than 13 percent in two years. “Back in 2001 the industry was probably $500 or $600 million in size,” says Peter Evans, executive vice president of online travel insurance retailer InsureMyTrip.com. “The industry has had triple-digit growth in the span of eight years, and along the way you’ve seen the companies continue to innovate.”
Those innovations, experts agree, have largely been reactive, after years of a fairly bad reputation combined with major world events that affected the whole travel industry. The September 11 attacks were a wake-up call for insurers, says Nancy Cutter, president of Court Travel in Charlotte, N.C. “We had people stuck in Europe when all U.S. flights were grounded,” she says. “Insurers looked at that and decided to make sure people were covered for out-of-pocket expenses. So a lot of the per diems increased, and they lengthened the time you could claim them if you got delayed.”
