You booked the flights.
The hotel is paid for. The rental car is reserved. Maybe you've purchased cruise tickets, concert tickets or excursions that sold out months ago.
Your bags are packed.
Then, two days before departure, something happens.
An illness. A family emergency. Severe weather. A canceled flight. Or perhaps the trip goes exactly according to plan — until you need medical attention thousands of miles from home.
Suddenly, the question isn't "How much did this vacation cost?"
It's "How much of that money am I about to lose?"
That's the problem travel insurance is designed to help solve.
And as Americans spend more on travel, the financial stakes are getting considerably higher.
We Protect Almost Everything — Except the Vacation
Think about how we approach other major purchases.
We insure our homes. We insure our vehicles. We carry health insurance. We purchase protection plans for phones that cost a fraction of what an international vacation can cost.
Then we spend thousands of dollars on flights, hotels, cruises and experiences — many of them prepaid or non-refundable — and sometimes leave the entire investment exposed.
Travel insurance can provide protection against covered circumstances involving trip cancellations, interruptions, delays, medical emergencies, lost or delayed baggage and emergency medical transportation, depending on the policy.
And travelers are putting serious money behind that protection.
According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Americans spent nearly $5.56 billion on travel insurance protection from 2022 through 2024 — a 46% increase compared with 2019.
There's a reason for that growth.
Travel isn't getting cheaper, and disruption isn't necessarily getting less expensive.
FACT: The Average Trip Is Now a Major Financial Investment
Squaremouth's 2026 travel data indicates that average traveler spending has established a new baseline of more than $7,000 per trip.
That's no longer an incidental expense.
For many households, a major vacation represents months or even years of saving.
Imagine putting $7,000 into any other purchase and being told:
"If something outside your control goes wrong, you could lose a significant portion of it."
Most consumers would immediately ask whether there was a way to protect themselves.
Travel should be no different.
The Vacation Doesn't Have to Be Canceled for Things to Go Wrong
Cancellation gets most of the attention, but the value of travel insurance can extend well beyond whether you actually make it onto the plane.
Consider what can happen during a trip.
Your luggage doesn't arrive.
Your flight is significantly delayed and you unexpectedly need a hotel.
You become sick or injured overseas.
You need to return home early because of a covered emergency.
Or, in a more serious situation, you need emergency transportation to an appropriate medical facility.
Depending on the policy and circumstances, travel insurance may provide benefits addressing these kinds of events.
That's particularly important internationally.
The U.S. Department of State notes that travelers should consider insurance covering emergency medical care and transportation back to the United States, and it strongly recommends medical evacuation insurance when traveling to areas with higher risk or limited medical care.
The NAIC also warns that many standard U.S. health insurance plans — as well as Medicare — may not provide coverage abroad.
In other words, the health insurance card in your wallet shouldn't automatically be assumed to provide everything you'll need in another country.
FACT: Medical Emergencies Are a Major Source of Travel Insurance Claims
This isn't just a hypothetical risk.
Squaremouth reported that emergency medical claims became its most frequently claimed and highest-paid travel insurance benefit in 2024, representing 27% of its paid claims. The highest emergency medical claim reported in that dataset was $61,976.
That puts the cost of travel insurance into perspective.
According to the NAIC, travel insurance policies generally cost approximately 5% to 10% of the total trip price, although pricing varies based on the traveler, destination, season, coverage and other factors.
Travel insurance isn't appropriate for every traveler or every trip. But when thousands of dollars are committed to a vacation — particularly an international one — it's worth asking how much financial exposure you're comfortable carrying yourself.
Cancellation Is Still One of the Biggest Risks
Now imagine you've planned the trip of a lifetime.
You have $8,000, $10,000 or even $15,000 committed between airfare, lodging, transportation and activities.
Then an unexpected covered illness prevents you from traveling.
The vacation disappearing is disappointing.
Losing thousands of dollars along with it can make the situation significantly worse.
Trip cancellation and interruption coverage can reimburse eligible prepaid, non-refundable travel expenses when a trip has to be canceled or interrupted because of a covered reason.
And these situations account for a significant portion of actual claims.
In Squaremouth's analysis of 2024 paid claims, more than 40% were associated with trips that were canceled or cut short, including Trip Cancellation, Trip Interruption and Cancel For Any Reason benefits.
More recent data points to an interesting contradiction.
In the first quarter of 2026, Squaremouth reported that 34% of its travelers purchased medical-only coverage and went without trip cancellation and interruption reimbursement protection — even as average trip spending remained above $7,000.
Travelers are spending more.
Yet some are protecting less.
"But My Credit Card Has Travel Insurance"
Maybe.
And it's absolutely worth checking.
Some credit cards provide valuable travel benefits, including forms of trip cancellation, baggage or rental-car protection.
But "my card has travel insurance" shouldn't be the end of the conversation.
The NAIC specifically recommends checking what coverage a credit card actually provides and determining whether it is sufficient for your needs.
Coverage limits, eligible expenses, exclusions and circumstances that trigger benefits can vary significantly.
The better question isn't:
"Do I have some travel protection?"
It's:
"If my $7,000 trip goes wrong, exactly what am I protected against — and for how much?"
Travel Insurance Isn't a License to Cancel for Any Reason
This is one of the most important things for travelers to understand.
Standard travel insurance does not mean you can simply decide not to travel and receive all of your money back.
Policies specify covered reasons, conditions, exclusions and benefit limits.
There are also Cancel For Any Reason, or CFAR, options available with certain plans. These can provide greater flexibility, but typically reimburse only a portion of eligible trip costs and can carry strict eligibility and purchase-timing requirements.
Understanding what you've purchased matters just as much as purchasing it.
Travel insurance should be viewed as protection against defined risks, not a guarantee that every inconvenience or change of plans will be reimbursed.
Don't Wait Until the Storm Is Already on the Radar
There's another mistake travelers frequently make:
Waiting until something is already going wrong before thinking about insurance.
Insurance is designed around unforeseen events.
If a known hurricane is approaching your destination, for example, purchasing coverage after the threat has already become known may be too late to obtain protection for that particular event.
The NAIC specifically cautions travelers against waiting until the last minute and recommends understanding policy terms, limitations and exclusions before purchasing.
The time to think about protecting a trip is when you're making the investment — not when you're watching the departure board turn red.
Travel With a Plan for the Unexpected
Nobody books a vacation expecting to cancel it.
Nobody boards a flight planning to visit a hospital.
Nobody checks a suitcase expecting it to disappear.
And nobody schedules a hurricane for the same week as their beach vacation.
That's precisely the point.
Travel is inherently unpredictable.
The goal of travel insurance isn't to prevent bad things from happening. It's to help prevent an unexpected event from becoming an unexpected financial problem as well.
SIMPL Makes Protecting Your Trip Simple
At SIMPL, we believe protecting a trip should be considerably easier than planning one.
SIMPL provides travelers with a streamlined way to explore travel insurance solutions designed to help protect against many of the uncertainties that can accompany a trip.
Whether you're planning a weekend getaway, an international adventure, a cruise or the vacation you've been saving years to take, spending a few minutes understanding your insurance options can be one of the smartest steps in the planning process.
You've already invested in getting there.
Consider protecting what it took to make the trip possible.
Protect Your Next Trip with SIMPL
Explore your travel insurance options at:
Because the best travel stories are about where you went — not what went wrong getting there.
Coverage, benefits, eligibility, limits and exclusions vary by policy. Travel insurance does not cover every circumstance. Review applicable policy terms and conditions carefully before purchasing.