Travel industry insiders are optimistic that the federal government’s lifting of its blanket advisory on non-essential international travel will make it easier and more affordable to purchase travel insurance.
“The travel insurance companies are working with their policies now to improve them and revise them with this news,” Allison Wallace, spokesperson for travel company Flight Centre, told CTV News. “We don't know all the details yet, but we would expect that it will be easier and a little less expensive, hopefully, to get travel insurance now that the advisory has been lifted.”
Canada has put out the global travel warning in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread.
The federal government’s website shows no longer shows the advisory, although it still provides a list of individual advisories for destinations, just like it did before the pandemic started. The website also urged travellers to be fully vaccinated at least 14 days before a trip.
“Be aware that although you are better protected against serious illness if you are vaccinated, you may still be at risk of infection from the virus that causes COVID-19,” the new advisory said.
Canadians who intend to travel will still need a negative PCR test result within 72 hours of a planned entry back into the country.
The federal government said it will continue to monitor the border positivity rate and will adjust its advice as necessary.
Wallace told CTV News that flights for the Christmas holidays were booking up quickly.
“The phones are ringing. We've definitely seen more demand,” she said. “We've actually been seeing a lot of demand in the last month, but I would say in this past week, in particular, with all of the news around things opening up and the federal vaccination passport.”
Wallace added that “sun destinations,” in particular, are seeing strong demand.
“The demand for sun destinations is very high,” she said. “Demand for getting away at Christmas, also very high. So, with this news, we expect that to be even bigger.”
