Canadian travellers are wary in the wake of the Brussels bombings that have left Europe reeling, and nervous tourists are driving a sudden uptick in awareness of the need for travel insurance.
“People are on edge when they travel,” says John Salmond, VP of Sales and Marketing for GMS travel insurance in Regina.
“It’s driving consumer awareness that there are all sorts of different risks associated with travel and all those risks have to be factored in when you decide to take a trip. Smart people do insure their trips, because they know that catastrophic loss is a possibility.”
Weighing against that however is the other effect of a newly awaked risk-aversion in vacationers: “people are looking for places that have a higher propensity for safety,” says Salmond. And when it comes to safety, there’s no place like home.
“It’s not like they’re walking into a known a warzone,” says Salmond of the attack on the quiet European capital. “Brussels would not have been on a travel advisory three days ago, now it is.”
And this factor, combined with the ailing loonie means Canadians are more likely to vacation at home
“We are seeing more instances of in-Canada travel; part of that’s due to the risk of foreign travel. We are seeing more people staying at home, and/or less travelling in general.”
