For many holidaymakers, travel insurance has become more than a small extra. Demand has risen amid war risks and natural disasters, while transport disruption has made travellers more aware of the financial consequences of an emergency abroad. Heymondo expects its premiums to grow by around 40% this year and says it will insure more than two million travellers.
The company's figures show how quickly the market has grown. Heymondo has insured more than three million travellers since it was founded, and its business grew by almost 70% between 2024 and 2025. Across the wider travel insurance sector, annual growth is around 5%.
The wider tourism recovery is adding to that demand. UN Tourism reported about 300 million international tourist trips in the first quarter of 2025, up 5% from a year earlier. An industry forecast also ranks the wider travel insurance market among the fastest-growing parts of on-demand insurance, with a projected CAGR of 18.9% through 2035.
Customers now expect more from a standard policy. Ricard Doménech, co-founder and co-CEO of Heymondo, told La Información Económica that travellers are more familiar with the risks attached to international trips. They may accept a higher price within a limited range, but expect more flexible services and broader, deeper cover in return.
The financial exposure is clear. Heymondo says it has paid claims worth more than one million euros and regularly handles individual cases valued at 200,000, 300,000 or 400,000 euros. Without insurance, Doménech warns, a serious incident can damage a traveller's assets or even lead to bankruptcy. The company puts the cost of protection at close to 1% of a trip budget. Fewer than 8% of policyholders ultimately report an incident.
The market faced an early test this year. Travel started strongly, but fighting in the Middle East escalated at the end of February. Transport costs rose and demand slowed. The effect was clear over Easter, which also brought natural disasters. Summer travel then recovered strongly, and the sector regained the ground lost during the second quarter.
Medical costs remain one of the clearest reasons to buy cover. An industry report citing UNESPA recorded 172,654 travel-insurance incidents in 2025, 51% of them linked to illness or hospitalisation. North America accounted for 12% of incidents but 24.3% of payouts, reflecting the high cost of medical care in the region.
This differs from the capacity problems described in an earlier Ceuta report. Insurers address the cost of disruption before it becomes a personal financial crisis. Fewer than one in twelve customers files a claim, but a policy still has value: travellers pay for protection against unlikely events that could cause major losses.
Airline and infrastructure failures are adding to those concerns. After a major NATS disruption in the United Kingdom, trade body Airlines UK estimated that more than 330,000 passengers were affected, with some facing cancellations and delays. Events like this are increasing interest in policies that cover travel disruption.
The products on offer are changing too. Industry forecasts put the global market for cancel-for-any-reason, or CFAR, insurance at $2.67 billion in 2025 and $2.98 billion in 2026, implying an annual growth rate of 11.7%. These policies appeal to travellers who want more freedom than the narrower list of covered reasons in many standard products.
Travellers still need to distinguish broader disruption cover from ordinary insurance. Consumer guidance from GoCompare says standard travel policies commonly exclude losses directly or indirectly connected with war, armed conflict or civil unrest. Cover for those risks may require a specialised, more expensive product. Add-ons can address selected cancellations or interruptions caused by conflict or natural disasters, with some also covering transport failures.
Heymondo is approaching its first decade in a strong position, Doménech said. Ricard Doménech and David Pérez founded the Barcelona insurtech, which now has established positions in Spain, Italy and France. Its expansion plan combines deeper activity in those markets with new launches across Europe. The company entered Romania at the end of last year and maintains a presence in Portugal; it says further markets remain on its roadmap.
The plan has financial backing from the US investment fund JC Flowers, which joined the company's capital last year to support growth. Heymondo is also examining possible acquisitions outside Spain when specific assets could add capacity or differentiation. Organic expansion remains its basic route forward.
The industry is moving away from treating travel insurance as a routine last-minute purchase. Customers are comparing the depth of cover with the scale of possible losses and are willing to pay more when the protection is clear. Heymondo's numbers show a business benefiting from that change, while its European expansion gives the shift a clear commercial direction. For travellers, a small premium can protect against a claim large enough to threaten personal finances.
