Gen Z Travels Hard but Skips the Travel Insurance

Three in four Gen Z Canadians plan to travel this year, a bigger share than any older generation, yet four in ten say they would hit the road without Travel Insurance. That is the headline finding from the Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada's latest Smart Traveller Survey, which also found that nearly half of young Canadians trust travel health information they see on social media.

The gap between wanderlust and protection is the widest among the youngest travelers. While just over half of boomers plan to travel this year, Gen Z's appetite runs far hotter, and so does its taste for risk: 87 percent of Gen Z respondents said they were likely to take part in a risky travel activity, the highest share of any generation surveyed.

"There's a concerning credibility gap in how the generation that's most likely to travel is learning about protecting their physical and financial health while abroad," said Will McAleer, spokesperson for the association. "Your ForYou algorithm can be a starting point, but anyone planning to travel should understand what kind of health coverage they need or already have from their parents' credit cards or group benefits plans," McAleer added, pointing at the social feeds many young travelers treat as a travel clinic.

The myths young travelers believe

The survey tested a few common assumptions and found most of them shaky. Nearly half of Gen Z respondents, 48 percent, said they believed their parents' credit card insurance would automatically cover injuries sustained while traveling. In reality, the association notes, coverage varies significantly with age, dependency status, trip type, and the card's own benefits, which means the supposed safety net may have holes exactly where a young adult needs it. Travel Insurance, in other words, is the product young travelers assume they have and rarely verify.

More than half, 53 percent, said they believed they would need to arrange their own transportation home if they were injured abroad. The reality is messier: medical transportation and emergency assistance can be complex and costly depending on the situation and the destination, and sorting it out mid-crisis is the worst possible time to discover the gaps.

Then there is the source problem. Roughly 45 percent of young respondents said they trusted travel health information seen on social media. Health requirements, risks, and insurance coverage differ by destination, circumstance, provider, and policy, according to the association, which makes a viral video a thin substitute for an actual policy document. It is a striking trust pattern for a generation that otherwise plans trips with unusual creativity, as GenZ NewZ found in the lore-tripping trend sending Gen Z to storybook small towns.

The risk appetite behind the gap

The insurance gap looks different once you see what Gen Z actually does on the road. One in four respondents said they would take part in an extreme sport while traveling. Alcohol use drew 44 percent, hiking drew 40 percent, activities with strangers drew 30 percent, and tattoos and dancing on bars each drew roughly a quarter of respondents, according to the survey.

Here is the catch: policies routinely exclude exactly these activities. Some plans will not cover injuries sustained with elevated blood alcohol levels, and others classify certain hiking as a high-risk activity and carve it out of coverage. A generation booking the most adventurous itineraries is also the generation most likely to discover, after the fact, that its Travel Insurance never covered the adventure. The traveler's own trip research keeps getting smarter — young travelers now trust AI with booking advice, as GenZ NewZ covered in the shift to AI holiday planning over Google — but the protection layer has not kept up with the ambition.

Why the industry is worried now

Timing explains the urgency. A separate survey from Flight Centre and YouGov found that eight in ten Gen Z and millennial Canadians are interested in traveling beyond their home province for a live event this year, with soccer, football, and basketball topping the wish list. Sports tourism already accounts for a tenth of global tourism spending and is projected to reach 1.3 trillion dollars by 2032, according to PAX News. When the generation most likely to travel for a game is also the least likely to buy Travel Insurance for the trip, the exposure compounds fast.

The counterpoint deserves airtime. THIA is an industry association, and its business is, broadly, the product it is recommending, so its warnings arrive with an interest attached. The survey also measures stated intentions rather than claims paid, and intent is not the same as injury. But the direction of the data is hard to dismiss: the cohort booking the boldest trips carries the thinnest protection, and it is learning the rules from the least reliable teachers. Young travelers guarding their vacation budgets with real care, as GenZ NewZ reported in how travelers are protecting trip spending in 2026, can extend the same discipline to one more line item.

The practical takeaway is a short checklist, not a lecture. Check what coverage already exists through a parent's card or a group benefits plan before assuming anything. Read the activity exclusions before booking the excursion, not after the injury. And treat social feeds as inspiration, which is what they are good at, rather than as underwriting advice, which they are not. Travel Market Report's coverage of the survey lays out the association's full myth-versus-reality breakdown for anyone planning a trip.