One in seven Australians took their last overseas trip without travel insurance. Of those who did buy cover, 93% were unaware of at least one common policy exclusion.
Vietnam is now one of Australia’s fastest-growing outbound destinations – and September through November is its most hazardous weather period.
The Australian government’s Smartraveller website issued an advisory on September 25, 2026, confirming Vietnam’s storm season runs from June to November. Typhoons, flooding, and landslides can disrupt flights, roads, power, transport, and phone services.
“Heavy rain, floods, landslides and typhoons can happen. These may affect flights, roads, power, transport and phone services,” the advisory stated.
Smartraveller also directed travellers to verify their insurance covers bad weather before departing – a recommendation that reflects a consistent gap between what policyholders expect to be covered for and what their product disclosure statement (PDS) actually says.
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A joint survey by the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) and Smartraveller, published in October 2025, found 14% of Australian travellers took their most recent overseas trip with no cover at all. Among under-30s, the figure was 23%.
Of those who did travel insured, 93% were unaware or unsure of at least one common exclusion, according to the ICA and DFAT’s 2024 Travel Insurance Survey.
The most common reason uninsured travellers gave for skipping cover: they believed their destination was safe. Vietnam currently sits at Smartraveller Level 1 – “exercise normal safety precautions” – a status that may reinforce that assumption even with an active storm season advisory in place.
ICA CEO Andrew Hall said: “Travelling anywhere, whether it’s overseas or domestically, is the highlight of many people’s years, but even when travelling to destinations perceived to be safe the unexpected can still happen.”
The mechanism with the most direct bearing on brokers is the known-event exclusion. Most Australian travel insurance policies will not pay claims for events that were publicly known – through government advisories or media coverage – at the time a policy was purchased. With the Smartraveller storm season warning active and in wide circulation, clients who buy cover without being informed of the weather risk may find weather-related claims declined.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) received 2,036 travel insurance complaints in the 2024-25 financial year, with exclusion-based denials a leading cause.
A client who books travel to Da Nang or Hoi An in October and is not advised of the current advisory – and later has a claim denied – has grounds for a dispute. A broker who did not document that conversation is in a difficult position.
The number of clients potentially affected is significant. Tourism Research Australia figures show almost 520,000 Australians visited Vietnam in 2025, up 19% on 2024. In the first seven months of 2026, Australian arrivals reached approximately 397,000 – a 22.5% year-on-year increase that outpaced overall international visitor growth to the country, according to Vietnam’s National Statistics Office.
Booking.com’s 2026 Travel & Sustainability Report, published in May 2026 and drawing on responses from 1,000 Australian travellers, found 75% factor extreme weather into the timing of their trips. A further 27% had cancelled or changed plans in the past 12 months due to extreme weather or natural disaster.
Rising weather awareness among travellers does not automatically translate into an understanding of how a government advisory interacts with policy cover.
Vietnam’s weather exposure differs by region, and that distinction affects how brokers should frame advice. Central Vietnam – including Hue, Da Nang, and Hoi An – carries the highest current risk. Its wet season runs from August through January, with typhoons and heavy flooding most concentrated between September and November. Southern Vietnam’s wet season extends from May to November. Northern Vietnam, including Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, faces its peak storm risk from May to August; conditions are generally more stable there by autumn.
A client with a Central Vietnam itinerary in October faces different policy implications than one heading to Hanoi. Standard travel policies do not always account for that distinction, and PDS language on weather disruption varies across the market.
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Storm season runs through November. Brokers placing travel cover for Vietnam-bound clients – particularly those travelling to Central Vietnam between September and November – should check exclusion clauses on foreseeable weather events, confirm what the applicable PDS says, and keep a record of the advice given. Where policy wording is unclear on weather disruption, raising that before a client departs is more defensible than explaining a declined claim after the fact.
Smartraveller’s specific instruction to check cover for bad weather points to a consumer awareness gap. Brokers are the most direct point of intervention.
