In many cases, travel insurance can be useful to protect against sometimes horrendous additional costs on vacation trips. However, money does not flow in every case and there are enormous price differences.

Travel insurance comparisons have increased again in recent months. The current comparative data from the tariff comparison portal Durchblicker shows that Austrians are increasingly spending their holidays in Austria this year. Other popular destinations include the US in second place, followed by Greece and Italy.

“Travelling in times of COVID – not least that left its mark on consumers. At Durchblicker, we notice that people deal more with the topic of travel protection before they travel, get better information and are currently comparing more travel insurance policies again," explains Durchblicker insurance expert Patrick Madl. 

A particularly large number of travel insurance policies are currently being compared for Austria. With trip cancellation insurance, hotels can avoid high cancellation costs. With travel accident insurance, additional accident benefits such as searching for and rescuing people can also be insured. Because what many people don't know: Helicopter rescue costs in alpine terrain are not covered by statutory health insurance.

If you travel outside of Europe, you should rely on a fully-fledged international health insurance with a sufficiently high sum insured. This is particularly important for countries with expensive healthcare systems, such as the USA and Canada, in order not to be left with expensive doctor or hospital bills.

Many travel insurance companies already have corona coverage

"Corona will remain the topic of travel planning this year," knows Patrick Madl from Durchblicker and at the same time has good news for consumers: "Since the outbreak of the pandemic, many insurers have adapted their products and introduced corona covers. For example, a corona illness before the start of the trip or a trip cut short due to a COVID-19 infection at the holiday destination is already an insured reason for cancellation and cut-off with many providers. However, since the corona coverage varies from insurer to insurer, it is advisable to compare offers and take a look at the tariff details.

Annual travel insurance is already worthwhile for 2 – 3 trips a year

Individual travel insurance policies are compared three times more frequently on Durchblicker than annual contracts. Annual travel insurance can pay off for two or three trips a year and save around 30 percent in additional costs, as this example shows:

If a family chooses an individual contract with complete protection for a 14-day summer holiday in Greece (travel price: 4.000 euros), the premiums are between 188 euros (cheapest provider) and 260 euros (most expensive provider). However, if the family opts for annual travel insurance with full protection at the same conditions, they save themselves unnecessary additional costs from the 2nd trip: namely between 19 and 32 percent compared to individual travel insurance - depending on whether they choose the most expensive provider (420 euros) or the cheapest provider (257 euros).