While the pandemic has people staying closer to home these days, the outlook for traveling abroad by cruise ship looks promising in 2021, according to recent findings from travel insurance and assistance company Allianz Partners. After analyzing more than 1,000 survey responses from customers who purchased its U.S. travel insurance products through travel advisors and other retail distribution partners, Allianz found that among retail customers who don’t plan to travel this year, many are planning to book international travel in 2021 and many of those international travelers will choose to cruise.
According to the Allianz data, 60 percent of its retail customers who say they won’t travel until 2021, plan to visit an international destination for their next trip—with 20 percent of those retail customers indicating that they will sail on a cruise ship.
Leading the survey respondents, 50 percent of Allianz retail customers indicated they will stay in a hotel or resort, while other retail customers revealed they will stay with friends and family (13 percent), followed by a rental house (8 percent), a personal vacation house (4 percent) and only 2 percent plan on spending their vacation in an RV, tent or cabin.
Although ocean cruising is not resuming in the U.S. until at least November 2020, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, elsewhere in the world, large ships are already setting sail with limited capacity, social distancing and other stringent safety measures in place.
“Travel will continue to evolve in response to the unfolding of global events. Meanwhile, we are discovering that our customers are more open to taking trips to overseas destinations once again,” said Joe Mason, chief marketing officer at Allianz Partners. “One area where we are expecting to see an increasing interest in the year ahead is in international cruise travel.”
As for insurance travel products, Allianz is currently offering several temporary accommodations, providing coverage for trip cancellations, trip interruptions, and emergency medical care for those who become ill with COVID-19 and has temporarily extended refunds of travel insurance premiums to customers whose travel suppliers have canceled their trips due to COVID-19.
The travel insurance and assistance company is also allowing customers to use their policy within 770 days of the purchase date so that it can be used for a new or rescheduled trip. Note, customers who are moving their existing plan must change their plan coverage dates before traveling and prior to any loss for which they are seeking coverage. Furthermore, if the customer takes advantage of this option to insure a new or rescheduled trip that was paid for with a travel supplier voucher, any amount paid by a travel supplier voucher would be considered part of that customer’s insured trip payments.
For more information, visit allianztravelinsurance.com. Don’t miss this feature from Recommend’s June issue, “The Importance of Travel Insurance Post-COVID-19.” And, check out the July/August issue for info on how countries are preparing to welcome back travelers.
