6 July 2023 by James Martin

In recent years, consumers have become increasingly aware of the importance of travel insurance. In fact, Future of Travel 2023 research conducted by Southern Cross Travel Insurance earlier this year shows that more than three quarters (76%) of Australian travellers consider travel insurance as a high priority for international trips.

Many of us may have a story of a friend or relative who’s been caught out while travelling.

COVID drove much of this. The pandemic has led to a heightened awareness of the risks of both domestic and international travel.

Insurers have had to juggle the need to offer well-priced insurance while tackling a number of challenges.

Having to add coverage for pandemic-related risks is expensive and, what’s more, Southern Cross Travel Insurance’s research shows 43% have had their travel plans disrupted by non-COVID illnesses in the past year.*

Amid such a challenging environment, Finder wanted to mark the efforts of those providers who were able to deliver feature-packed policies while still representing value for money.

To that end, Southern Cross Travel Insurance has proven to be an outstanding performer at the Finder Awards 2023.

Triple recognition for Southern Cross Travel Insurance

Southern Cross Travel Insurance won in the following categories of Finder’s annual Awards:

• Winner: Best Travel Insurance - Comprehensive
• Winner: Best Travel Insurance - Seniors
• Highly commended: Best Travel Insurance - Value 

It was the only insurer to be recognised 3 times across the 4 travel insurance categories: this marks an excellent achievement and underscores the quality of the insurer’s travel insurance policies.

How were the winners chosen?

Finder undertook an in-depth analysis of the travel insurance market in Australia. We compared over 50 policies and sourced more than 300 quotes across 13 traveller profiles.

Some 900+ features were compared in the awards process. 

The policies that scored highest were those that offered lots of benefits and features that stayed competitive on price. 

Here’s more detail on each category in which Southern Cross Travel Insurance won or was highly commended.

Best Travel Insurance - Comprehensive

For the comprehensive category, our final score was based on a 75/25 weighted split of features and price.

Southern Cross Travel Insurance placed first. Put simply, it won the 2023 comprehensive award because it goes further than other insurers.

Southern Cross Travel Insurance’s International Comprehensive travel insurance policy has a comparatively generous cover limit of $25,000 for theft or damage to luggage and personal items.

Customers get $10,000 in coverage for rental car excess insurance. It also scored highly for its range of COVID benefits.

Dependant children are also covered for free up until they’re 21.

Best Travel Insurance - Seniors

Southern Cross Travel Insurance won the 2023 senior travel insurance award because of its competitive pricing and benefits. This included a high score for its age limit cap, COVID benefit and cancellation benefits.

It comes with high cover limits and will insure travellers up to the age of 118. This helps to make it a strong choice for senior travellers.

Best Travel Insurance - Value 

Finder’s Awards research showed a swing of $906 between the cheapest and most expensive international policies. The value category was a particularly important one as Australians continue to deal with cost of living pains – in fact, 10% of Aussies said they’d forgo travel insurance due to rising cost of living.*

Southern Cross Travel Insurance was our Value runner-up. Essentially, it's one of the most competitively priced travel insurance policies on the market.

As part of our detailed analysis, we gathered quotes for dozens of destinations. Southern Cross Travel Insurance placed in the top 3 for cost out of 28 international travel insurance policies. 

Many congratulations go to Southern Cross Travel Insurance for its excellent achievements at the 2023 Awards. 

For more details on Finder’s Awards program including the full methodology, visit: https://www.finder.com.au/finder-awards/product/travel-insurance-2023 

About the author – James Martin

James Martin is the insurance editor at Finder. He has written on a range of insurance and finance topics for over 7 years. James often shares his insurance expertise as a media spokesperson and has appeared on Prime 7 News, Insurance News and 7NEWS. An experienced journalist, James' work has featured in publications including The Irish Times, Companies100 and In Business. He holds a Tier 1 General Insurance (General Advice) certification which meets the requirements of ASIC Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146).

* Sourced from Southern Cross Travel Insurance’s Future of travel research, which took place in January 2023 and was conducted by YouGov. A nationally representative sample of 1,028 Australians aged 18 years and older took part in the online survey.