Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection ("BHTP") has released the findings of its fifth annual travel insurance survey. Among the key findings, 23 percent of travelers said they were going to buy travel insurance more frequently in 2020 than they did in 2019. This is a considerable jump in intent to purchase, as last year's survey showed only a 14 percent year over year increase.
The numbers jumped much higher when looking at Millennials, with 71 percent of them saying they planned to buy more travel insurance next year. Respondents across the board who said that they planned to buy more travel insurance cited traditional reasons such as trip cost, family health, and cancellation fears.
The survey found that Millennials were attracted to travel insurance because they said it could save them time and money when travel did not quite go as planned, and 46 percent said they were most afraid of epidemics and terrorism while traveling.
Additionally, 69 percent of all survey respondents said they planned on doing something dangerous so they could post a picture on social media.
"While the past several years of our research has uncovered that Millennials continue to show steady increases in their intentions to purchase travel insurance, what surprised us this year is 64 percent stated travel scares them a little," said Dean Sivley, president of BHTP. "It says a lot about Millennials who by and large indicated an appetite to take risks while traveling yet are showing they are savvy enough to protect themselves with travel insurance."
BHTP added that its survey projected Millennials slightly slowing down their travel frequency, and mature travelers sticking close to home once again. However, when choosing to travel, Millennials were spending large amounts of money. The vast majority of Millennials with children, 85 percent, said they spent more than $5,000 on travel in 2019. Additionally, almost 58 percent of Millennials with children said they spent more than $10,000 on travel in 2019.
Other findings from the survey included:
- Ride share services such as Uber were perceived less safe than walking, bicycling, taking a bus, or other forms of mass transit. Trains were cited as the safest travel mode.
- Respondents considered international terrorism to be their top threat to travel, followed by disease outbreaks and safety concerns at their destination.
- Frequent travel insurance buyers continued to say that they were looking for a more tech-driven, customizable travel insurance experience. Younger travelers also were much more likely to say that they visited comparison sites and aggregators and relied on online reviews when buying travel insurance.
- Millennials were 10 times more likely than mature travelers to be concerned about problems they might encounter traveling with their pet.
- Italy, France, and Japan led in terms of countries perceived to be the safest for travel along with "safe exotic" popular destinations such as Australia and New Zealand.
Learn more: bhtp.com.
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].