Natural disasters & holiday cancellation

02 January, 2024

Are you covered to cancel your trip in the event of a natural disaster? The answer will depend on your choice of insurer.

In recent times natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes have hit the widespread media and affected countless travellers around the world. It's certainly not improbable that the weather could turn sour at your trip destination. So would travel insurance cover you to cancel your flights, acccomodation and additional costs in the event that an earthquake or hurricane was to strike at the heart of your holiday plans?

Like every type of insurance there are conditions you need to pay attention to. For instance, while your insurer may cover natural disasters, if you've chosen a 'basic' policy, with no cancellation benefits, you would not be eligible to claim for cancellation.

In the majority of cases Australian travel insurance policies do cover for cancellation in the event of a natural disasters. However there are a few insurers worth paying attention to as the conditions of their cover may vary.

Insurers Covering Natural Disasters

The following table highlights which insurers do and do not automatically cover natural disasters.

Insurer	Underwriter	Conditions
1Cover	HDI Global Specialty SE – Australia	If a natural disaster interrupts your pre-paid travel arrangement, you're covered up to the policy limit for cancellation fees and lost deposits.
Fast Cover	Hollard Insurance Company Pty Ltd	Cover for cancellation fees and lost deposits for pre-paid travel arrangements due to unforeseen natural disasters. In addition, you will be covered for your reasonable additional travel and accommodation expenses if a disruption to your trip is from weather or natural disaster.
InsureandGo	Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company Limited	To include any unexpected natural disaster as a claimable event, you must have purchased this option and the option must be shown on your policy schedule.
Tick Insurance	Mitsui Somoto Insurance Company Limited	To include unexpected Natural Disaster as a claimable event, you must have purchased this option and the option must be shown on your Policy Schedule.
Zoom Travel Insurance	HDI Global Specialty SE – Australia	Cover if your scheduled or connecting transport is cancelled, delayed, rescheduled or diverted because of a natural disaster.
Budget Direct	Zurich Australian Insurance Limited	If your scheduled or connecting transport is cancelled, delayed, shortened or diverted because of natural disaster or weather, you'll be covered for your reasonable additional travel and accommodation expenses.
Cover-More	Zurich Australian Insurance Limited	You're covered for additional accommodation and transportation expenses as a result of natural disasters.
Insure4Less	Chase Underwriting Pty Ltd	Cover for hurricane, storm or other natural disaster only when it threatens your safety such that official evacuation orders are issued or that your pre-booked accommodation is rendered uninhabitable.
SCTI	Southern Cross Benefits Limited	Maximun cover $2,500
Travel Insurance Direct	Pacific International Insurance Pty Ltd	You are covered in the event your trip is necessarily and unavoidably cancelled prior to departure or curtailed before completion because of a natural disaster.
Travel Insurance Saver	Pacific International Insurance Pty Ltd	If a natural disaster interrupts your pre-paid travel arrangement, you may be covered up to the chosen policy limit for cancellation fees and lost deposits. Consider the PDS and TMD from TIS and if the policy is right for you.
Virgin Money	Zurich Australian Insurance Limited	Cover for cancellation fees and lost deposits for pre-paid travel arrangements due to unforeseen natural disasters. In addition, you will be covered for your reasonable additional travel and accommodation expenses if a disruption to your trip is from weather or natural disaster.

General Advice Warning: The contents of this article were accurate at the time of writing. Insurers change their policies from time to time, so some information may have changed. You should always read the Product Disclosure Statement of your chosen insurer to understand what is covered and what isn't. The information provided is of a general nature only and does not take into account any personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making a decision you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your personal circumstances.

Tips For Buying Travel Insurance

It's important to know that there are some scenarios where you can invalidate your cover. The following points explain when you are unlikely to be covered in regard to natural disasters.

Travel insurance purchase as an afterthought: You wouldn’t be covered if you decided you needed to purchase after a travel warning had been issued. For example, if you heard about a hurricane warning in the mass media and only then did you decided to buy insurance, you couldn't cancel your holiday and claim for any out of pocket expenses.
Intentionally putting yourself in harm’s way: If you decide to visit a destination with a heightened travel warning and you were aware of the risks but decided to go anyway, it’s unlikely that you would be able to claim.
Deciding not to go: You are unlikely to be covered for wanting to cancel your trip ‘in response’ to a travel warning. For example, if a destination is known to be experiencing problems and a travel alert is heightened before your trip commences, you wouldn’t be covered for any claims relating to cancellation if you just decided not to go.
General exclusions: Most standard travel insurance policies have a set of general exclusions that apply to your cover. So regardless of when a travel warning is issued, and whether you took advice from the government or not, you may find you will not be insured for certain events. General exclusions that tend to be across the board include: Strikes, riots, civil protest and political instability, any act of war, terrorism, any event to do with nuclear or chemical weapons, contagious diseases and/or epidemics or pandemics.

Caroline Tran

Carolina has been working exclusively in the travel insurance industry for over two years. With a customer consultancy background and currently studying law, she is a fine-print wizard who loves helping travellers find a policy that actually works for them. Speaking two languages and having travelled all over the world, Carolina discovered that she is not cut out for working holidays after a stint on her grandparents’ southern Vietnam farm, and is definitely a lounge-by-the-pool kind of lady.