Mexico City offers free health insurance to tourists

by Katie Hammel on

After near-hysteria over Mexico’s outbreak of the H1N1 (swine) flu virus crippled the country’s tourism industry and resulted in record low hotel occupancy rates, Mexico City’s tourism is slowly rebounding. To help get tourism back to its pre-“aporkalypse” levels, the Mexico City Tourism Ministry is unveiling a new plan that officials hope will help convince people that it is safe to visit.

Any tourists who stay in one of Mexico City’s hotels will receive free health insurance. Under the plan, tourists are covered for not only treatment of the H1N1 virus, but also for any other disease or accident they suffer from while staying in Mexico City. Prescription drugs, emergency dental care, hospital stays, and ambulance transportation are also covered. There’s even assistance in case of robbery, luggage loss, or the delay or cancellation of a flight.

Mexico City normally welcomes around 7 million (international and domestic) visitors each year. When news of the H1N1 flu broke, tourists began to disappear and hotel occupancy rates plummeted, reaching as low as 5% in April, according to USA Today. Now they are around 59%, but the industry is still feeling the pinch. Officials hope that the offer of free health insurance may help sway those who were considering a trip to Mexico, but were concerned about the risk.


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[via Los Angeles Times]

Drunk on vacation? Don’t harass people, or someone will set fire to your penis!

by Scott Carmichael on

Here is a story that is bound to make you think twice about harassing the locals when you are drunk.

When 20 year old Stuart Feltham tried to assault a 26 year old local girl on the Greek island of Crete, she first politely asked him to stop.

Like most people, she was not impressed by a drunk British tourist dropping his pants and waving his genitals around.

Her requests went unanswered, so she poured a glass of Sambuca on him. Even that wasn’t enough for this guy to get the message, and when he continued harassing her, she set fire to the alcohol (and his genitals) – causing severe second degree burns.

Mr. Feltham was rushed to a private clinic where he is being treated. Thankfully he was smart enough to pay for travel insurance, and his policy had no exclusions for burned penis.

The British Home Office (like our State Department) is of course embarrassed by the whole thing, especially since they have been campaigning to reduce the number of Brits getting in trouble when they are abroad.

Reveling tourists are such an annoyance to local residents of Crete, that Miss Fanouraki is being called a hero. She’s claiming self defense and the local magistrate has already hinted that they’ll most likely accept that, and let her off easy.

Lesson learned today: no means no, and when someone pours flammable liquid on your private parts, run to the bathroom for water.
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San Diego homeless man gets 14 years for beating, burning Aussie tourist

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Damian Maple, a homeless man in San Diego, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for beating an Australian tourist, Robert Schneider, with a skateboard and dragging him into a fire pit. Maple went down for attempted murder for attacking the 26-year-old Adelaide resident in 2008.

Maple’s accomplice, Francisco Montoya, was sentenced to two years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon. Montoya is also homeless.

According to a witness, Schneider threw sand in Montoya’s face, prompting the latter to attack the former. Maple encouraged Montoya and then dragged the unconscious Australian tourist into a smoldering fire pit. Schneider’s injuries – including burns and a skull fracture – put him in the hospital for several weeks.

Brit cops delete photos, fight terrorism

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Two Austrian tourists ran afoul of local police when they took pictures of the city’s famous double-decker buses. Klaus Matzka and his son, Loris, were clicking away on the streets of London while on vacation. Shots of a bus station in Walthamstow (in east London), however, got the cops interested.

The tourists were told by local police that they were not allowed to photograph anything related to transportation. They were thanked not only with deleted photos but with the collection of their passport numbers, hotel addresses and other personal deals.

After all, taking pictures of buses and bus stations could be a sign of terrorist activity.

London’s Metropolitan Police Authority says it has no knowledge related to a ban on transportation pictures in the city. Matzka observes, “Google Street View is allowed to show details of our cities on the web, but a father and his son are not allowed to take pictures of London landmarks.”

Germans still traveling to U.S.

by Tom Johansmeyer on

You’ll find plenty of German tourists at just about any major destination in the world, and this is unlikely to change. As of October/November 2008, German tour operators are reporting a 4 percent to 9 percent increase in tour bookings.

Trips to the United States were up 5 percent for the first 11 months of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007. Seventy-nine percent of the tour operators surveyed believe that bookings to the United States will be up for the last quarter of last year. Major cities are on the agenda, so look out, New York! The Germans are coming!

At the time of the survey, German bookings to the United States were up 10 percent to 15 percent average for the fourth quarter – and that’s over 2007’s 15 percent gains from the fourth quarter of 2006.

And, the trend is expected to continue this year. Sixty-four percent of German tour operators project a 4 percent to 9 percent increase in the first quarter of 2009 (relative to the first quarter of 2009.