Last updated: 04/05/2024
From ancient cities to wondrous scenery, Zimbabwe is one of Africa’s most exciting and popular destinations. Not to mention, the country is also home to the Big Five, making it a world-famous safari destination, too. All of this comes at a high price tag, however, and visitors traveling from abroad are encouraged to protect their trip investment in the event unforeseen events disrupt their plans.
While Zimbabwe has no official travel insurance requirements, it’s recommended to get a policy that includes coverage for cancellations, medical emergencies, delays, and lost luggage.
From flights to safari tours, visiting Zimbabwe can be a costly adventure. Squaremouth data indicates that the average trip to Zimbabwe costs travelers nearly $15,000, making it one of the most expensive destinations in the world.
Having a travel insurance policy with cancellation coverage is a smart way to protect your trip investment. With the Trip Cancellation benefit, travelers can be reimbursed for all of their prepaid and non-refundable trip expenses if they fall ill, get injured, or experience other covered disruptions prior to departing for their trip.
Policies with Trip Cancellation also include Trip Interruption coverage, which can provide travelers reimbursement if unexpected events cause them to return home from their trip early. This benefit applies to travelers that have already departed for their trip and have unused, nonrefundable trip costs.
The most common covered reasons include unforeseen illness, injury, or death of the traveler, a traveling companion, or a non-traveling family member. Other covered cancellation reasons may also include terrorism, inclement weather, or a natural disaster, among others.
Safaris and adventure tourism are some of the main drivers of visitors to Zimbabwe, often taking travelers deep into remote areas of the country. When traveling to remote locations, far from hospitals and treatment facilities, it’s recommended to have a policy with high medical coverage. This is one of the most important safari travel insurance benefits, as the cost of medical treatment can be significant.
Travel medical coverage is broken down into two main components: Emergency Medical and Medical Evacuation.
The Emergency Medical benefit is designed to provide treatment during a trip. If a traveler in your group is injured or falls ill during your trip, the Emergency Medical benefit can cover the cost of treatment. This includes ambulance services, lab costs, medical bills, x-rays, and other physician services. With the potential for high medical costs when visiting Zimbabwe, we recommend a policy of at least $100,000 in Emergency Medical coverage.
The Medical Evacuation benefit can cover the costs of transportation to the nearest adequate medical facility in the event of an emergency. While in Zimbabwe, this may involve lengthy drives or air-ambulance assistance. For that reason, we recommend visitors find a policy with at least $250,000 in Medical Evacuation coverage.
While Zimbabwe attracts millions of tourists each year from around the world, getting to the Southern African nation isn’t always an easy journey, and often requires a multi-leg journey. With that comes a higher chance of travel disruptions and delays. This is a growing concern for travelers in today’s travel landscape.
Fortunately, most comprehensive travel insurance policies offer protection for travelers that experience delays that impact their trip.
Travelers enroute to Zimbabwe that experience a delay may be eligible for food and accommodation reimbursement through their policy’s Travel Delay benefit. If the delay causes them to miss a connecting flight, the Missed Connection benefit can also reimburse for a new flight or other costs associated with catching up with their trip.
To be eligible for delay coverage, a delay must reach a certain length, which can typically range from 3-12 hours. The best policies for travel delay will have lower delay requirements and higher coverage limits, with some policies reimbursing up to $2,000 per traveler.
Most comprehensive travel insurance policies also include luggage protection. Both the a href=“https://www.squaremouth.com/travel-insurance-benefits/baggage-delay”>Baggage Delay and Baggage & Personal Items Loss benefits offer reimbursement to travelers if their baggage gets damaged, delayed, or lost at any point during their trip.
Click here to begin your search for Zimbabwe Travel Insurance.
While traveling to Zimbabwe comes with a high price tag, visitors get to experience the country’s natural beauty, diverse wildlife population, and incredible culture.
Destination Rank: 88
Percentage of Squaremouth Sales: 0.11%
Average Premium: $1,114.99
Average Trip Cost: $16,869.94
Squaremouth Analytics compares thousands of travel insurance policies purchased pre- and post-pandemic to identify changes and trends in the travel insurance industry.
Squaremouth's destination information is free and available for use within your reporting.
Please credit Squaremouth.com for any information used.
Squaremouth's topic experts are on hand to answer your questions. Contact a member of our team for media inquiries about Squaremouth Analytics or to schedule an interview.
Steven Benna, Lead Data Analyst: sbenna@squaremouth.com