Travel insurance sales have increased 53% since news of the omicron Covid-19 variant hit, according to travel insurance comparison site Squaremouth.com.
Travel insurance demand had already been on the rise in recent months, Squaremouth said, but omicron has caused sales to rise "to an all-time high." The delta variant of Covid-19 only bumped sales by 20%.
"A new and highly transmittable variant can certainly be a cause of health concerns among travelers," Squaremouth chief marketing officer Megan Moncrief said in a statement. "But the implications go beyond that, to include border closures and quarantine restrictions that can be difficult to accommodate."
Squaremouth warned that travel insurance will not necessarily cover travelers for those eventualities. While most policies do cover those who contract Covid-19, only some will enable travelers to cancel if there is a government-issued travel warning for a destination.
Cancel-for-any-reason policies would enable travelers to do just as the name implies, but they are more expensive than standard policies and must be bought within a short window after a trip is booked.