Canadian winter travel demand is rebounding sharply after a year of hesitation, but Allianz Canada is warning that the next phase of growth will be shaped as much by who travels – and how – as by how many people get on planes.
Allianz's latest Winter Vacation Confidence Study showed a sharp rebound in Canadians' winter plans, with 46% of Canadians confident they will take a winter vacation this season, up 11 percentage points from last winter and broadly back in line with pre-pandemic norms, according to Kyle Sparkman (pictured), managing director and head of Allianz in Canada.
"People pull back and stay home a little bit more," he said. Foreign exchange pressures, geopolitical concerns and tariff uncertainty all played into that dip. "Then, next year, you tend to see an uptick and travel intentions are coming back up."
Sparkman expects that bump to define the 2025-26 season. He notes that airlines have already adjusted capacity "to destinations where Canadians are more likely to travel," giving more options on popular routes. The upshot: a clear "return to travel" after a year when many households effectively "surfed" the news cycle and stayed home.
Behind the scenes, the industry has also been digesting a difficult medical‑claims hangover from the post‑COVID surge. Sparkman describes a three‑stage return to travel:
“People didn’t realize that they were three years older,” he said. Some took the same risks they would have taken pre-pandemic, but with more underlying medical vulnerability. The result, across the market, was "a fairly difficult medical insurance year… a lot of out-of-country medical events and major medical events."
That experience forced a sharp pricing adjustment, particularly for older Canadian travellers. Sparkman said pricing for some age bands "increased quite substantially across the market," with Allianz and its competitors implementing rate changes over roughly the past 12 months.
He now sees that reset as largely complete. "We figured out how to get the pricing in place," he said. The current travel season is "a bit better for us – still worse than prior years, but much better than the past year." With inflation easing and higher medical costs now baked into assumptions, he expects "more steady, more inflation-based" shifts in 2026 rather than another round of steep hikes.
At the same time, consumer expectations around service have moved decisively online. Sparkman sees a growing insistence on "seamless experiences," especially when something goes wrong. Travellers "want it to be paid quickly, and they want to have digital access to those tools" when they file a claim, he said.
Telemedicine has become a central part of most insurers’ responses. Rather than forcing travellers into unfamiliar hospitals or clinics for relatively minor issues, Allianz is also investing in remote consultations that can keep trips on track.
Sparkman pointed to scenarios where a traveller can speak to a doctor, receive a prescription "right on somebody's trip," pick it up locally and "continue on with their vacation." That satisfies customers’ desire for convenience while helping the insurer avoid the higher costs associated with emergency‑room visits or more invasive interventions.
Another trend shaping 2026 is the widening spread between ultra‑basic and fully flexible airfares – and the very different coverage needs that come with them.
Sparkman notes that airline fare structures now run from "ultra basic, where you can't bring a carry-on luggage, to fully flexible." In that context, one‑size‑fits‑all trip‑cancellation products make less sense.
"In a completely inflexible fare, Canadian travellers need some trip cancellation [and] interruption type coverage," he said. For fully flexible fares, by contrast, the exposure tilts toward "post-departure products” that deal with delays or incidents that occur during the trip.
Working more closely with airlines to understand fare flexibility and match coverage accordingly is necessary, Sparkman says. That means determining which products deliver genuine value for different fare types and customer segments, rather than simply layering traditional cancellation and interruption benefits over every booking.
