Travel Insurance for Americans: Get a Plan Tailored for You

Key Takeaway:

Americans like to travel far, spend a lot, do a lot, take a lot with us and often get sick or injured along the way. Travel protection plans from Generali Global Assistance are designed specifically for American travelers, to help when you need it most.

Here’s one more example of why America is home of the free: travel insurance.

No, travel insurance isn’t given away for free here, but you have the freedom to decide if you want it or not. Many countries, especially European countries, require their own citizens to have insurance coverage when they travel or for citizens of other countries entering their country to have some sort of travel medical coverage. That’s not the case in the U.S.

Of course, there are reasons for the European travel insurance mandate that just don’t apply to Americans. Countries with universal health care differ in what’s covered, and where, and when; often when people from these countries leave their borders nothing is covered.

But we’re talking about Americans, and why we should buy travel insurance to cover our trips. Turns out the reasons why we want to buy travel insurance aren’t so different from the reasons why many Europeans have to buy travel insurance.

Let’s look at the five big reasons why travel insurance is so important for Americans:

• Americans travel far
• Americans spend a lot on travel
• Americans do a lot of things
• Americans have a lot of stuff
• Americans get sick or injured when they travel

Americans made more than 19 million trips to Europe in 2019. That’s a huge number when you consider that going to Europe for Americans generally means taking an extremely long and expensive flight.

Even more impressive is that about 550,000 Americans visited Africa in 2019, almost 1 million people visited Australia, New Zealand and the rest of Oceania, and more than 6.5 million went to Asia.

It’s not easy or cheap for Americans to visit many of these places. The fact that Americans invest so much in simply getting to a place makes travel insurance a more important purchase.

Per Statista, Americans spent $972 billion in travel in 2019. Business Insider says Americans spend almost $2,000 per person annually on summer vacations – and because this is an average, many Americans may be spending lots more.

Again, a vacation for us is not buzzing through the Chunnel for a week in the south of France; it’s oftentimes a multi-thousand-mile big deal. Because we have more dollars at risk when we travel, buying travel insurance is a sensible choice for many American travelers.

Map: Find the Best Outdoor Activities in All 50 States

Americans may say they just want to kick back on their vacation, but that sentiment often changes when they arrive in a foreign country. According to the Chicago Tribune, we like to dive in and go sightseeing (55% of respondents), explore local culture and cuisine (51%), and spend time out in nature (45%).

While people who visit America from another country often do the same things, and throw in a couple of theme parks for good measure, the fact that our vacations tend to be packed with activities means that we have a vested interest in covering those activities with travel insurance.

Nordstrom Trunk Club estimates that 62% of Americans say they pack too much when they travel.

Americans pack too much for cruises and tours and beach vacations and vacations in the mountains because there might just be a tennis court at the top of the Matterhorn and we wouldn’t want to miss out.

It doesn’t seem likely that anything will happen to convince Americans to pack less when they travel. After all, if a pandemic didn’t do it, nothing will. Given that this behavior is probably hardwired in our DNA, travel insurance is a prudent choice, so that in case that tennis racket goes missing you’re not left on top of the Matterhorn twiddling your thumbs.

More than 40% of Millennials say they’ve traveled when they’re sick, according to Forbes, and what’s even more shocking is that 27% of Baby Boomers concur. And that doesn’t even account for people who get sick or hurt themselves when they travel.

Travel illness or injury isn’t just something that happens to someone else; it’s something that happens frequently to Americans. And because Americans tend to go just a little bit deeper into the Amazon or lean out just a little bit further over that railing, it just makes sense for them to have robust travel insurance that includes Medical & Dental and Emergency Assistance & Transportation coverages. Both of these coverages are included in our Guest Protect, Ski & Mountain, and Seaside Coastal Travel Insurance plans.

Americans are pretty set in their ways when it comes to travel. We’re going to continue to push the travel envelope and lose things and miss connections and get sick when we do. Because of that, travel insurance from Generali is just a good idea.

B000682207