Historically, travel agents and tour operators have dominated the travel insurance market in the UK. Holidaymakers have tended to buy insurance at the same time as booking their holiday, generally for convenience. Whilst this is still the case for the majority of sales, increasing consumer awareness and the emergence of low-cost suppliers have started to erode the travel trade's market share. The proliferation of new entrants in recent years, especially direct sellers, Internet companies and high street retail companies, has rendered the travel insurance market an intensely competitive place, and has kept premiums down over the past three years. However, continuing consolidation among insurers and the travel trade as a whole, as well as the reinsurance costs created by 11 September 2001, are likely to provoke a hardening of rates in 2002.

With thousands of policies available to consumers, providers are seeking to differentiate on types of cover as well as price. Additional options for winter sports, weddings, golf and other leisure activities, as well as specific policies for backpackers and dangerous sports, are now common among many portfolios. The biggest area of growth, however, is the annual multi-trip policy, which is targeted at frequent travellers. Banks, building societies and direct insurers have been at the forefront of this development, which is slowly causing a polarisation in the industry.

On the one side there is the travel trade - the agents and operators - which predominantly sell single-trip policies to their customers at the time of making their holiday bookings. However, some agents are now selling and marketing stand-alone products as well as annual multi-trip policies in an effort to curb the recent fall in their market share. On the other side, direct sellers, banks and building societies are selling annual policies in much larger numbers. There has also been a recent trend for banks and credit card companies, for instance, to offer free annual cover to their premium account or credit card customers. Although there may be a place for these products, they tend to comprise only basic cover, and customers may find they need to purchase additional cover for winter sports for example.

Mintel's report on the travel insurance sector will examine these issues, along with the impact of the US terrorists attacks in September 2001 on the travel market and an update on the role of the General Insurance Standards Council (GISC) in regulating travel insurance. Other main aspects covered in the report include market size, market share by the main underwriters, the various distribution channels and products available, as well as future trends.

In addition, specially commissioned consumer research was devised by Mintel to determine people's attitudes towards buying travel cover, and to ascertain the demand for single-trip versus annual multi-trip insurance. A sample of 2,002 adults were aged 15+ were questioned about their travel insurance buying habits between 11 and 16 October 2001.

Other Mintel reports of relevance to this market include:

- Special Report, Holidays - Coping with a Crisis - UK Report, February 2002

- Pet Insurance, Finance Intelligence - UK Report, December 2001

- Interactive Insurance, Finance Intelligence - UK Report, October 2001

- Credit and Debit Cards, Finance Intelligence - UK Report, August 2001

- Home Insurance, Finance Intelligence - UK Report, July 2001

- Motor Insurance, Finance Intelligence - UK Report, June 2001.

If you want more details about this particular report, please contact the Mintel information team on +44 (0)20 7606 6000 or email them at info@mintel.com.