Next year will see international travel recover at a faster pace despite increasing prices, as travelers shake concerns from the pandemic and plan bigger trips, according to recent research by travel insurance marketplace Squaremouth.com, which analyzed booking trends to identify five key 2023 travel predictions.
Here's what it had to share:
1. 2023 Will Mark the Full Recovery of International Travel
Nearly 90 percent of insured travel was for international destinations, marking the first time international travel matched pre-pandemic levels. Squaremouth anticipates a high demand for international trips to continue in 2023.
2. Antarctica Will Be a Top Destination for the First Time in 2023
With international travel back, bigger trips to more adventurous destinations will trend in 2023. Preliminary 2023 trip data shows Antarctica is a top destination for the first time ever. Other top destinations early in 2023 include Israel, Costa Rica, France, Spain and Japan.
3. Travelers Primed to Spend at Least 25 Percent More on Travel
With lingering economic uncertainties, travelers are becoming more budge-conscious and changing their spending habits. That said, travel is getting more expensive, and will continue to increase in 2023. Travelers spent an average of 25.53 percent more on trips in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic figures. Of all age cohorts, Millennials are feeling the most price pressure, spending an average of 40 percent more on trips compared to 2019.
4. Older Travelers Return
Older travelers have returned to pre-pandemic numbers going into 2023. Squaremouth expects Millennials and Gen Z will continue to purchase travel insurance at a higher rate than 2019.
Over 60 percent of travel insurance buyers are born before 1980, which includes Generation X and Baby Boomers; collectively, this group is expected to spend over $2 billion on travel in 2023. Throughout the pandemic, these demographics saw the largest drop off. At the same time, Millennials and Gen Z grew their market share of travel insurance purchases by over 15 percent
5. Travelers Will Worry Less About Coronavirus and More About Airlines
Due to aviation-related travel disruptions in 2022, trip cancelation and travel delay are becoming bigger concerns for travelers going into 2023. Searches for travel insurance including COVID-related coverage dropped by around 2 percent in 2022, while searches for "Cancel for Any Reason" dropped by nearly 3 percent from 2021, and almost 9 percent compared to 2020. Trip delay coverage had the biggest increase of all searches, due in part to airline flight cancelation issues.
Methodology: Squaremouth analytics compared travel insurance policy sales for trips being insured between January 1 and December 5, 2022. To determine the top insured destinations for 2023, Squaremouth analytics analyzed all plans purchased by December 5, 2022 for travel between January 1 and December 31, 2023.
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