This summer, I’m planning a few hikes that aren’t too far from home. I’ll definitely do the Bruce Trail, and likely a few others. From what I’ve been reading lately, I’m not the only one who is planning to vacation near home.

Canadian tour operators are reporting their travel business is down by 15% this year, according to a recent article on “staycations” that I read in the Canadian Press. In case you haven’t heard this term before, the “staycation” refers to tourists who opt for attractions close to home or within their home country.

This topic came up recently with my colleague, Michael Brattman, VP of Personal Lines. I was interested to know whether he had seen a drop in the number of Canadians purchasing travel insurance.

He said that trip cancellation insurance remains popular, as does insurance for lost luggage. As well, annual plans do well for Canadians who travel a lot, mainly because of the additional medical coverage they provide over and above OHIP. The cost varies by province, but there can be charges for air and land ambulance.

A lesser known but slowly growing area of travel insurance is for visitors to Canada. So if family or friends are coming to visit you from another country, you can purchase travel insurance for them here.

We don’t have any visitors coming over this summer, so I’ll likely be okay there. But I did suggest to Michael that perhaps he could consider offering insurance for bears – I just may need it.