Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection research shows that men are more willing to take travel chances.
While men are more likely to purchase trip insurance before they travel, they’re also more inclined to take risks amid the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, found a Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection survey.
Women are more likely to comply with government safety and health guidance.
The survey also showed that while women are less likely to buy trip insurance, their travel is less risky. They are more likely to follow government recommendations for health and safety. Moreover, the trips they are taking are typically road trips and remain closer to where they live.
Nearly 60 percent of female respondents to the survey said they used hand sanitizer or washed their hands more while traveling as is recommended by the CDC. Only 39 percent of male survey respondents said they were doing the same thing. The results of the survey were published in the insurer’s sixth annual State of Travel Insurance report. There were 564 travelers surveyed.
The report speculated that men may buy trip insurance more due to the riskier nature of their travel.
The survey showed that men were over twice as likely to say that they took travel risks. Twenty percent of women said they took risks while traveling, while 48 percent of men said the same thing. At the same time, the insurance company’s research also found that men were more likely to say that their travel plans or planned destination would change based on news of violence or disease outbreaks.
According to Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection vice president of strategic marketing, Carol Mueller, a trend has been identified over the six years that the insurer has run the survey. Throughout that time, the results have shown that women “tend to be more prudent and sensible travelers than men.” Still, she added: “that doesn’t necessarily translate into women buying more travel insurance because they’re more prudent.”
Over 46 percent of male travelers purchased trip insurance for all their 2020 travel. On the other hand, only 25 percent of women could say the same thing. Among male travelers, only 34.6 percent insured none of their trips, whereas 49.5 percent of women didn’t insure any of their travel in 2020.