November 7, 2024
Kyle Sparkman—Chief Sales Officer, Allianz Global Assistance
Canadians are vacationers. They’re known to escape the cold during the winter months, frequently visit their neighbours to the south and explore countries around the world.
As a leading travel insurance provider in Canada, we conduct a semi-annual survey that measures Canadians’ vacation confidence and monitors emerging and ongoing travel trends among consumers. Allianz Global Assistance’s 2024 Vacation Confidence Study revealed that seven in 10 Canadians planned to take a vacation this year, and 73% of survey respondents said an annual vacation is important to them. The study also found that Canadian households are expected to spend $30 billion on trips in 2024. The average vacationing family planned to spend over $4,000 on a vacation in 2024. To say it again, Canadians are vacationers.
As we know, there’s been a rapid recovery in the Canadian consumer’s mindset around the importance and prioritization of travel since the pandemic. Allianz’s Summer 2024 Vacation Confidence Study suggests this trend is continuing—30% of Canadians said they planned on taking more than one trip this summer. We consider this segment to be hyper travellers.
Our research also shows a rapidly growing segment of healthier, more adventurous seniors who are bucking the trend of traditional snowbirds. Most seniors (84%) have travelled abroad multiple times in the past 12 months and nearly half of those (47%) spent two or more months outside of Canada. Allianz has coined this new segment nomadic seniors.
These 55+, retired, healthy, tech savvy, frequent travellers who are financially savvy adventure seekers value being protected. Rather than staying in one place (like the US) for six months, they’re taking a higher number of more frequent, shorter trips (often from a few weeks to a month) to explore a broader range of destinations during the winter months. They’re embracing the freedom to travel frequently.
Despite recent economic headwinds that may have been expected to put a damper on plans, travel remains a top priority for Canadians post-pandemic. And what this surge highlighted was a need for revolutionized travel insurance.
In recognition of a long-standing need for reform and driven by evolving consumer needs, Allianz developed a first-of-its-kind annual travel insurance plan—the Annual Medical Flex Plan. Launched earlier this year, it’s a flexible, affordable and appealing insurance option meant to reflect Canadians’ unique and changing travel needs. It also aligns with how Allianz believes brokers want to do business: offer a product that’s easier to sell and customers want and need.
Instead of a trip-by-trip basis, Allianz’s product offers coverage for the total number of planned travel days outside of Canada within one year. Travelers have the flexibility to use those days across trips of varying lengths with no per-trip limit. This streamlined approach is convenient for both customer and broker, mirroring broker operations which are geared toward annual events like home and auto policies. We view the Annual Medical Flex Plan as a win-win-win for the customer, the broker and the industry.