Almost £4 million is paid out every week to help people who become ill or injured while abroad, travel insurance industry figures show.
Last year, insurers paid out more than £206 million to over 202,000 travellers who needed to claim for emergency medical treatment - the equivalent of 3,800 people a week.
This was out of a total of £370 million paid in 581,000 travel insurance claims overall in 2014, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
The data also shows that the average cost of a claim for medical expenses on a travel insurance policy has increased to £1,022 from £930.
As the summer holiday season gets into full swing, the report is a timely reminder to travellers to remember to take out travel insurance, the ABI suggests.
An annual travel insurance policy costs an average of just £32, but 22 per cent of people are still travelling without cover, the ABI says.
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Copyright Press Association 2015