Drivers of Travel Insurance Purchase

Abstract

With the increasing number of critical events happening at tourism destinations, travelers engage in different strategies to reduce travel risks, and travel insurance purchase is one of these. However, little is known about travel insurance purchase behavior despite its relevance in the modern context of travelers’ heightened alert induced by potential or actual risks of critical events. The present study applies an Integrated Choice and Latent Variable (ICLV) model to investigate individual insurance purchase decisions in a leisure travel context. A mix of sociodemographic covariates, travel-related behaviors, and psychological variables is adopted in the model. Personality traits are crucial for the purchase of products that are strongly related to the psychological dimension of individuals’ choice behavior. The results show that personality traits of conscientiousness and neuroticism contribute to the determination of travel insurance purchase behavior.