And the Survey Says… J. Ross Quigley CEO Medipac International Inc. Insurance …that we are getting – on average – a little younger, a little more educated and a little richer, and that we consider ourselves to be quite happy and healthy. With all the media talk of recessions, bad border crossings and a lower dollar, these things have all proven to be of little relevance to us. Our travel patterns have returned to be almost identical as before the pandemic. We – again on average – travel for four to six months and take three to four days to get to our Southern destination. As we age, we tend to spend a little longer in the South and the dollar/recession/border issues have caused a little more than 5% of us to change our future plans in any way. Seventy-five per cent of us travelled south to our primary destination last year. And 87% of us plan to travel south this year. COVID-19 concerns are still influencing the decision to travel for 25% of us, but that seems reasonable, when you consider what we’ve been through in the last two years. Only 1% of survey respondents have not received any shots for COVID-19, and the majority have had both their two shots and their two boosters. Bravo! Some of us reported experiencing a little more difficulty at the border due to frustrations arising from the ArriveCAN app, but most of us were able to make it work and returned to Canada without too much hassle. It will be interesting to see how things evolve this year. Almost 85% of you encouraged other snowbirds to join CSA, but 72% have not attended even one of our many events. What a shame! You are missing wonderful entertainment, an opportunity to meet old (and new) friends and important information about every aspect of being a snowbird. Sixty per cent of you have NOT contributed to CSA’s Special Action Fund, so don’t you think that it may be time to help out those who work so hard to help you? We were pleased to see that 33% have a Nexus card – that’s double the number in our last survey, so snowbirds are beginning to appreciate that the card can ease any border crossing and that it’s very useful at airports to avoid the huge lineups. Being a “Trusted Traveller” is just the right thing to do these days. The Form 8840 is filed by more than 60% of snowbirds and perhaps this is a wake-up call to those who don’t. Fighting with the IRS is much more onerous than filling out a form once a year. Please just do it, if you are a long-stay snowbird. The satisfying statistic, to us, is that 91% of survey respondents would recommend Medipac for travel insurance. This is a huge endorsement of Medipac’s services and a large thank you is in order. For those who have made a travel insurance claim, 91% have had a satisfactory, or better, claims experience. More than 45% said that their claims experience was “Excellent,” so there is still room for improvement, but we are glad that these people had an excellent experience at such a stressful time. There is still a small percentage of people (8%) who travel without insurance and my guess is that it is due to the expense. This is a false savings; please, please get your travel insurance, otherwise, you should only travel within Canada. Our health is improving, too – 94% rate their health as good to excellent. This is helped by the fact that 89% of us are having an annual checkup with their family doctor. Ninety-five per cent have never consulted a naturopath practitioner for health-care services. Newspapers are no longer our primary source of news; only 12% read paper. Fortyone per cent rely on the television and 38% get their news from the internet. Ninety-four per cent are shopping online and are doing so with credit cards that collect rewards points. And more than 66% are communicating with relatives by text message and email, as well as the telephone. Fifty-five per cent are surfing the net on a smart phone or tablet and more than 35% have used a rideshare service such as Uber or Lyft. I should point out that there is a bias to our survey, in that it only represents the thoughts and wishes of those who chose to fill out this survey. This time around, we received more than 10,000 responses, which is very high when compared to other surveys, so we believe our answers to be statistically very representative…and our snowbird lifestyles ARE the best. You just proved that with your answers! 12 | www.snowbirds.org
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzMzNzMx