InsureMyTrip, the travel insurance authority, today announced the results of its annual cruise survey. The new poll of roughly 1,440 U.S. respondents reveals that getting sick or injured before or during a cruise remains the top concern for travelers. Health-​related issues also led the majority of travel insurance claims for cruise vacations.

Summary

• Illness or injury affecting a trip is a top concern for cruisers
• Medical issues drive the majority of travel insurance claims
• Cruise discounts and itineraries that include more time at a port (less at sea) are motivating factors when booking a cruise
• The Caribbean and Alaska are preferred destinations for cruisers

Getting sick or injured is a top concern

Cruisers are most concerned about an illness or injury affecting a trip followed by bad weather and missing a cruise departure.

42.2% Getting sick or injured before or during a cruise
37.3% Bad weather
20.5% Missing a cruise departure

Getting sick or injured before or during a cruise was also identified as the top concern in last year's survey. Thirty-​one percent polled also said they have experienced a stomach illness or seasickness during a cruise.

Trip cancellations and medical issues top claims

Travelers, who voluntarily participated in this survey, had all researched or purchased travel insurance within the past 24 months. Out of those polled, 24% had filed a travel insurance claim for a cruise-​related issue. Here were some of the common reasons:

1. Medical care required during a cruise
2. A medical issue forced a trip cancellation
3. Bad weather forced a delay or cancellation of a cruise
4. Missed flight led to a delay or cancellation of a cruise
5. Items were stolen or lost during a trip

When searching for reliable travel insurance, Cruise Vacationers will likely turn to the internet. Within the last month, according to AudienceSCAN, 50.3% of these consumers used a search engine to research a product or service they were considering for purchase. Many (89.1%) prefer to use Google when conducting searches and only 17.5% will go past the first page of results.

Travel insurance for cruisers

According to purchasing data by InsureMyTrip, 70% of cruise customers choose a comprehensive travel insurance policy for trips at sea. 

Comprehensive travel insurance provides a variety of benefits including trip cancellation, trip interruption, emergency medical coverage, emergency medical evacuation, 24/​7 emergency assistance, travel delay, and baggage protection.

In addition, cruisers can now choose comprehensive travel insurance plans that include cruise-​specific inconvenience benefits. These benefits aim to address travel inconveniences most commonly experienced by cruisers, for example:

Shipboard service disruptions: When a fire, mechanical breakdown, or virus disrupts a cruise.

Port of call change: When a cruise line changes an itinerary prior to departure due to weather or other circumstances and you elect to embark on the voyage.

Travel insurance providers have a number of effective advertising methods available to them. For starters, according to AudienceSCAN, 21% of Cruise Vacationers get most of their local news from newspapers and, last year, 57.8% took action after seeing a newspaper ad. They're also 39% more likely than other adults to be motivated to action by ads in movie theaters and 37% more likely to take action after seeing ads on daily deals sites such as Groupon. Last year, this group also took action after receiving email ads (56.3%), seeing TV commercials (69%) and after either seeing an ad on their mobile smartphones or receiving an ad via text (54%).

AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. Media companies and agencies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.