Mexico City offers travel insurance for tourists
Officials in Mexico City hope to lure skittish tourists with unusual bait: complimentary health insurance. Under a new program, tourists who stay in the city’s hotels are eligible for free coverage for emergency medical care, hospital stays, prescription drugs and ambulance services.
The initiative, called the “Tourist Assistance Card,” grew out of Mexico’s recent H1N1 flu crisis, which sent tourism plunging nationwide as would-be travelers steered clear. In Mexico City, which had the country’s most reported flu cases, a near-complete shutdown hammered hotels and restaurants, compounding damage caused by the global recession.
The insurance program is run by the city’s tourism office through a private insurer, MAPFRE. Anyone staying at a Mexico City hotel is eligible for coverage, officials said, and can get help by dialing a call center, which will have attendants fluent in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. A deductible will apply for some services, but officials did not provide details. Typically, travel insurance places limits on coverage for emergencies.
“Of all the world’s largest cities, Mexico City is the first to try this,” Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said Tuesday at a ceremony unveiling the service.
Mexican tourism officials expect depressing year-end results, in part due to the flu outbreak and the recession. Tourists also have stayed away due to drug-related violence that has killed more than 9,000 people since January 2008, according to unofficial tallies in the Mexican media.
During the flu crisis, travelers fled resorts such as Cancun, leaving them as surf-washed ghost towns. Some hotel chains have tried to attract tourists by promising free vacations to anyone who contracts H1N1 during their stay. Meanwhile, the city braces for the next flu season.
“We are preparing ourselves for winter,” Ebrard said. “We’re working with great care.”
For more information on the insurance program, visit the Medical Care and Assistance section of the city’s tourism website.
– Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times staff writer
Photo: Skyscapers along Paseo del la Reforma, a key thoroughfare and tourist magnet in Mexico City. Credit: Susana Gonzalez / Bloomberg
4 Comments on “Mexico City offers travel insurance for tourists”
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July 30th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Anyone who travels to the third world hell hole known as Mexico should not be surprised when something happens to them. Country is dirty and corrupt.
July 30th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
This could be a great marketing tool for cities in the US also.
Visit Detroit….If you get shot, we’ll cover the hospitalization.
Visit Las Vegas…If you catch the clap, we’ll give you a shot in a snap!
Visit Laredo…Sorry pal, you are on your own. You should have known better than to visit someplace where people are shooting each other just for sport.
July 30th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
To flyinrevo where in America can one get emergency care at no cost as a tourist. My sister fell of a horse, cracked skull, broken rib,forearm and lacerations on face and arm. Did no pay a single penny, the mexican government even paid for transportation to the border. And as far as being third world, been to NoLa lately after two years still looks pretty bad.
August 4th, 2009 at 8:35 am
in response to flyinrevo’s derogatory remarks, his version of mexico is either based upon brief trips to mexican border towns or from watching TV from the comfort of his double-wide trailer. i have lived and worked in mexico for 18 years and know all-too-well the difficulties mexico has faced as a neighbor to and economic partner with the U.S. mexico depends too much on its export market, over 80% of which is goes to the U.S. if the U.S. is sending orders, mexico is producing. mexico also has had to bear the greatest burden as the transshipment country for the voracious drug appetite of millions of americans. strengthen american impulse-control and weaken the american characteristics of over-dependency, quick fix to life’s problems mentality and the appetite for drug consumption with wain.
flyinrevo should spend a week visiting such beautiful central mexican cities as guanajuato, queretaro, and san miguel de allende before sharing such ignorant thoughts.