Travel insurance is particularly important for travelers who are purchasing trips or making partial deposits well in advance of their departure date, McGinnity noted. "Travel insurance covers you from the moment you purchase your plan until you return home from your trip," he said. "If you're booking further in advance, you have a longer period of time to cover your travel investment. A comprehensive plan through Travel Guard can reimburse you for nonrefundable airline tickets and other expenses if you have to cancel your trip for an unexpected family illness, injury, severe weather or a host of other covered reasons."

Travel Guard offers a number of comprehensive travel insurance plans that provide reimbursement for trip cancellation, as well as interruption, delays due to covered reasons, lost, stolen or delayed baggage, and emergency medical expenses, including medical evacuation. Most plans also include a full range of personal and travel assistance services that consumers can access before and during their trip. For example, customers can call before they travel and get information on visa/passport requirements, inoculations, luggage shipping services and more. They also have access to Travel Guard Assist's 24/7 LiveTravel emergency travel service in case they need to rebook cancelled flights and make new travel arrangement or hotel reservations.*

For more information about Travel Guard's selection of travel insurance and assistance service plans, travelers can visit http://www.travelguard.com/ or call Travel Guard's World Service Center at 1-800-826-1300.

About Travel Guard

Travel Guard Group, Inc. ("Travel Guard") (http://www.travelguard.com/) is one of America's leading providers of travel insurance plans for more than 6 million travelers each year. Travel insurance plans through Travel Guard are distributed by more than 12,000 travel agents across the United States. PR Newswire