Travel Insurance for Do Not Travel Countries

Quick summary for busy readers:

• Do Not Travel is the highest of SafeTravel’s four advisory levels, reserved for places where there’s a serious risk of death, injury, kidnapping or imprisonment.
• Most standard travel insurance policies exclude any claim connected to travelling to a Do Not Travel destination, whether you’re already there or booking a new trip.
• You can still buy travel insurance for a high risk country. Cover just won’t extend to anything connected to the reason for the warning.
• Timing matters. If a warning is upgraded to Do Not Travel after you’ve already booked and paid for your trip, you may have some cover for cancelling those bookings, though war, pandemics and epidemics are excluded regardless of timing.
• Some events are excluded no matter what: war, nuclear, biological or chemical incidents, and pandemics or epidemics are standard exclusions across almost every policy.
• Always check SafeTravel before you book, before you pay, and before you travel, then read your Policy Wording for your insurer’s specific exclusions.

 

Seeing the world is one of the best things you can do, but not every destination is equally safe to visit at every point in time. Before you book, it’s worth knowing exactly where your destination sits on the New Zealand Government’s travel advice scale, and what that actually means for your travel insurance.

Here's what a Do Not Travel warning means, how it affects your cover, and whether you can still buy insurance for a high risk country.

What is a travel warning?

A travel warning, also called a travel advisory, is official government guidance about how safe it is to visit a particular country or region. In New Zealand, that advice comes from SafeTravel, the government’s travel advice service run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

SafeTravel rates every destination on a four-level scale:

• Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions.
• Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution.
• Level 3: Reconsider Your Need To Travel.
• Level 4: Do Not Travel.

Do Not Travel is the highest level, reserved for places where travelling puts you at serious risk of severe injury, death, kidnapping or imprisonment. It’s usually tied to war, armed conflict or terrorism. At this level, the New Zealand Government’s ability to help you if something goes wrong is extremely limited, and getting out quickly if the situation worsens may not be possible.

Warnings aren’t only about conflict. They can also cover severe weather, natural disasters, civil unrest or disease outbreaks, and they can be issued or upgraded at any time without notice. Past examples include the Bali ash cloud, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and the Sars outbreak in China.

How do travel warnings affect my travel insurance policy?

Like any type of insurance, there are conditions attached to your cover, and travelling to a destination with a heightened warning can affect it significantly.

Your policy is designed to cover sudden, unforeseen events that happen after you buy it, not situations you already knew about. Generally, you won’t be covered if:

• You buy insurance as an afterthought: If a warning has already been issued and you buy a policy afterwards hoping to cancel your trip and claim, you won’t be covered for anything related to that warning.
• You knowingly travel into danger: If you’re aware of a heightened warning for your destination and go anyway, claims related to that warning are unlikely to be paid.
• You simply change your mind: Wanting to cancel out of fear or a change of heart isn't covered, unless your destination is directly affected by an event and the warning was issued after you bought your policy.
• The event falls under a general exclusion: Most standard policies exclude claims connected to war, whether declared or not, nuclear, biological or chemical incidents, and epidemics, pandemics or public health emergencies, regardless of when the warning was issued.

Timing plays a big role here. If a Do Not Travel warning is already in place before you buy your policy, you generally won’t be covered for anything connected to it. If the warning is issued or upgraded after you’ve bought your policy and after you’ve booked and paid for parts of your trip, you may have some cover for cancelling or rearranging those bookings. Though the exclusions above still apply, you’ll typically be covered for:

• Medical treatment: If something happens to you unexpectedly while you’re away, unrelated to the reason for any travel warning, you’re generally covered for necessary medical treatment and evacuation. Cover for injuries directly caused by war or terrorism varies significantly between insurers, so this is worth checking in your own Policy Wording rather than assuming either way.
• Cancellation cover: If a new warning is issued for your destination after your policy was purchased, you may be able to claim for cancellation, provided it’s not something you already knew about.
• Disruption of journey: If your trip is disrupted by circumstances outside your control, you’re generally covered for reasonable extra travel and accommodation costs.

If your destination sits at Level 3, Reconsider Your Need To Travel, or lower, you can generally still travel under your policy’s normal terms, just keep checking SafeTravel in case that changes.

Can I buy travel insurance for Do Not Travel countries?

Often, no. Buying a brand new policy for a country that’s already rated Do Not Travel is a different situation to what happens if a warning changes after you’ve bought your policy.

Many major New Zealand insurers won’t sell you a policy for these destinations at all. Some state outright that they don’t offer cover for the country, while others simply won’t list it as an option when you try to get a quote.

This is especially common for countries under international sanctions, like Russia or North Korea. Providing cover, and potentially paying out a claim, could put an insurer in breach of those sanctions, so many decline to offer any cover for these destinations rather than risk it.

Where an insurer does let you buy a policy for a Do Not Travel country, treat it with caution. Cover for anything connected to the reason for the warning is very likely excluded, whether that’s an injury from the conflict itself or needing to cancel because of it, leaving you with a policy that offers far less protection than it appears to.

If you’re determined to travel to a Do Not Travel destination, the safest approach is to contact insurers directly and ask exactly what, if anything, they’ll cover, rather than assuming a policy will be available or useful. That said, we highly recommend rethinking your travel plans. If there’s a Do Not Travel warning in place, it’s there for good reason.

Can I still buy travel insurance for high risk countries?

Yes. Regardless of Level 3 ‘Reconsider Your Need To Travel’ government warnings, you can still buy travel insurance for those countries, and most of the usual benefits still apply.

For example, say you’re travelling somewhere under a heightened warning, and while there you’re involved in an accident completely unrelated to the reason for that warning and need medical evacuation. You’d generally still be covered for the treatment you need.

Or say you’re travelling somewhere with a known civil unrest warning, and you accidentally drop and damage your camera while sightseeing. That claim has nothing to do with the unrest, so your policy would generally still cover the cost to repair or replace it.

In both cases, you’d keep the usual benefits of your policy. It’s specifically claims connected to the warning you already knew about that are likely to be excluded.

How can I find out if the destination I’m visiting has a travel warning?

Always check SafeTravel before you decide on your next holiday, and the World Health Organisation’s site for global health-related advice. Many insurers also publish current travel warnings on their own websites.

If you ignore advice from the government or another official body warning against travel to a particular country or region, you risk invalidating your cover. In short, if you knowingly expose yourself to unnecessary risk, you’re travelling without protection.

Every insurer has different rules around their policies. If you’re unsure whether your destination is covered, read your Policy Wording to understand the specific exclusions, or give your insurer a call before you book.