Due to the rise in unexpected disasters and illnesses including acts of terrorism travel insurance has become more popular with those traveling. Unfortunately, buyer be ware. Generally this type of insurance coverage will not protect you if you cancel a vacation out of outright fear.In most cases, fears of subway bombings or liquid explosive plots are not covered. If you think there’s a chance of a tropical storm slamming into the shore you love, it probably isn’t covered. The purchase of travel insurance would not be beneficial in any of those situations.What travel insurance will cover, is payment to you for non-reimbursable portions of your vacation. Items such as the airline ticket and/or hotel deposits. It only applies to those situations where a policy holder HAS to cancel or delay a trip, or in the event the insured gets stranded it will help cover extra costs.The policy may possibly provide medical treatment in the event that you are under the care of a doctor in a foreign country. This is great because you never know if your medical insurance would be taken at a facility overseas. However, each of these programs will have certain exclusions.Many calamities that spur the purchase of travel insurance are not covered at all. For example, some insurance policies do not cover any sort of terrorism. It is important to peruse these contracts.In the event that terrorism actually is covered, you must be careful to review the fine print, because the protection may be restricted to a specific timeframe or radius. If you are afraid to visit a country because of a recent terrorist outbreak in a neighboring area, most likely you are out of luck. In short, you can’t get covered for your fears.However, people buy travel policies because they are concerned and afraid. But fears are the only thing that the majority of policies won’t cover. There can also be a catch if the insurance wasn’t purchased for the trip within 15 days of the act of terrorism.A lot of insurance companies did pay for food and rooms for their clients when the terror plot in London was exposed in 2006. Interestingly though, because the plot was foiled, the insurers would not pay if you wanted to cancel.The cost of protection for traveling is just like every other insurance policy because it depends on where the person is going, how thorough they want their coverage to be and other risk factors. There are comprehensive policies available that will cover delays that may leave you stranded, lost luggage, emergency medical, cancellations, flight accident and medical evacuation coverage. You can pick and choose which specific types of insurance that you would like.There are even companies who sell policies that allow you to cancel for any reason. If you cancel your trip up to three fourths of the cost can be covered by the policy if there is a “cancel for any reason” clause. Generally you will pay an additional forty percent premium to get this coverage.There are nearly 17 million people in America who buy travel insurance policies every year. Yearly sales of these policies have almost doubled since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The trend is not anticipated to change in the near future, considering the numerous health and medical emergencies in the headlines every week.When deciding on how much travel insurance and what needs coverage one should bear in mind that many companies that provide travel will often not penalize the traveler if they must cancel or delay their flight or cruise due to large scale interruption in transportation. Sometimes coverage by travelers policies is not necessary and the traveler can be reimbursed by the companies or hotels.