Nordic insurer Tryg says long-haul travel more popular than pre-pandemic

Tryg A/S

12/07/2022 10:40

By Nikolaj Skydsgaard
    COPENHAGEN, July 12 (Reuters) - Long-haul travel is back
among Danes and even more popular than before the COVID-19
pandemic, as pent-up wanderlust increasingly drives them to
venture outside Europe's borders, Scandinavia's largest insurer
Tryg  TRYG.CO  said on Tuesday. 
    "Whereas last year we travelled a little less, and when we
travelled, it was mostly in Europe, there have been many more
trips to Thailand or the United States, to far-away
destinations," Tryg's Chief Executive Morten Huebbe told
Reuters.
    In the last quarter Nordic households opted for fewer but
longer and more expensive trips, as opposed to more frequent but
less expensive travel activity in previous years, the firm said
in its earnings report published on Tuesday.
    Tryg posted a second-quarter technical result - a measure of
profits in the core business, excluding investments - of 1.9
billion Danish crowns ($256.15 million), 3% above estimates, and
kept its guidance unchanged. Shares were up 2.3% at 0909 GMT.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2YT14Y  
    Travel insurance claims tripled year-on-year in the quarter,
Huebbe said, adding that data from claims showed long-haul
travel seems to be even more popular now than prior to the start
of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.  
    That is also evident in higher prices on the travel
insurance claims, which on average are above 2018 and 2019
levels, Tryg said, primarily driven by an increase in coverage
of travel injuries and patient transport.  
    "Many customers tell us that they have splurged on a luxury
vacation because they haven't spent money on travel during the
pandemic," Tryg's director of travel claims Janus Egelund Larsen
said. 
    "It is now the time to embark on the long-distance journeys
and the larger family journeys that have been postponed due to
COVID," Larsen added. 

 (Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard; Editing by Jan Harvey)
 ((Nikolaj.Skydsgaard@thomsonreuters.com;))