Mexico City Is Handing Out Free Health Insurance to Tourists

Mexico City is having an awfully tough time pulling in tourists. Why? Well, there's this little "Swine Flu" thing that people are all hung up on (you may also have heard of H1N1?) and it's keeping tourists away from the border.

But fear not, dear traveller, for the kind Mexico City Tourism Board has a solution for you: free health insurance.

That's right: as an incentive to increase tourism to Mexico, the city's tourism office teamed up with (well, "teamed" may be too nice a word) MAPFRE, a private insurance company.

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.

Obviously, in an ideal world, this isn't even an issue and everyone goes to Mexico City, doesn't contract H1N1 and gets to come home without having to pay any deductible or visit any Mexico City hospitals.

Well, actually, in an ideal world, my bosses call me into their offices and say, "Hey, you! You're great. Here's a two-week vacation to Cancun. Enjoy!" And then I go there and don't get H1N1 and actually get offered a job blogging about paradise from a cabana and never have to come back to America. But things don't always work out like we want.

So, um, yeah. The point I was trying to make is that it seems pretty clear -- based on the potential financial loss here -- that Mexico is safe now. Right? Or maybe not. Regardless, it's just the flu.

British Airways Pretends to Battle Swine Flu

Sure it sounds like a good idea. The motivation behind it could even be applauded. Some might say, "They're just trying to keep passengers healthy."

Except that they're not, and they can't, and it may be the travel industry's worst idea of 2009 (aside from the galactically stupid Pet Airways).

British Airways recently announced that passengers displaying the symptoms of swine flu will be turned away at check-in and asked to provide a doctor's note saying they are fit to fly.

There are a whole list of reasons this is a terrible idea, so let's just take it from the top:

(1) The people at the check-in counter are qualified to diagnose H1N1? Are you serious? The airline claims check-in workers have been trained to identify the disease by looking for the following symptoms: headaches, runny noses and sore throats. F*cking Brilliant.

(2) What's to keep someone from contracting the virus AFTER they visit a doctor? Is there some magic germ-barrier that surrounds people holding "fit-to-fly notes"?

(3) Apparently all the MDs in Britain were just sitting around waiting for something to do. So naturally, they need a few thousand extra patients seeking signatures and smiley faces over a head cold. I'm sure they'll appreciate the fact that the referrals came from the medical experts at the AIRPORT CHECK-IN DESK.

(4) Finally, they really want to do this for the swine flu? Come on. Every single year the world loses between 200,000 and 500,000 people to the flu. Just the regular old flu, for which, we already have a vaccine. It's not that H1N1 doesn't matter, but people need to have a little perspective...

And apparently British Airways will not be providing that perspective. Instead they've opted to exploit people's irrational fears with an ignorant and backwards policy that will do nothing to halt the spread of a relatively unalarming disease. Cheers.

South Korea Offers to Pay Tourists Who Contract Swine Flu

South Korea has a new twist on swine flu: if you get, you also get paid! I know, it seems ridiculous, but it's their big "tourism promotion" for 2009.

See, the H1N1 New Strain Influenza Cash Relief Program is designed to keep tourism alive in South Korea and remind people that even if you contract a possibly deadly (who knows, right?) or possibly harmless version of the flu, you can still get straight paid.

Well, kind of -- they're offering NT $100,000 to any tourist who contracts the swine flu while traveling in South Korea. The good news? It's money! The bad news? It's only $3,000 American.

But as we discussed in the PTG corporate headquarters, it's not like getting the swine flu is going to kill you or anything*. Or, at least, it probably won't. And if you contract it in South Korea, you're getting three grand for your troubles.

Additionally, after July 1, if you fly on Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, China Airlines, Eva Airways or TransAsia Airways and contract H1N1, you're getting three Grrr as well.

This is, of course, the first ever program of its kind: no tourism board as ever offered money for contracting a virus. And it probably would have made our list of "viral" marketing schemes for 2009 if it had been announced this week, because even as big of a pessimistic gamble as the whole thing seems, it's still pretty fascinating and at least worth getting some love by the media.

Also, the economy's down and money is nice, no?

*Please note we may not be considered licensed physicians in the United States.

Swine Flu Cancels Tijuana Potros' Baseball Season

The swine flu has claimed another economic casuality, this time in the form of the Tijuana Potros, who were scheduled to begin their first season in the Golden Baseball League.

The Potros' games -- which apparently represented 10% of the GBL's total schedule -- will force the GBL to readjust their schedule, and the Potros have stated that they intend to play in another year, but don't believe the 2009 season to be economically viable.

"The H1N1 virus health risk and the necessary government response and actions have wreaked havoc with the economy and businesses small and large throughout the country," said Tijuana Potros President Jose Manuel Pena. "It is not possible to operate with this uncertainty that keeps sponsors from committing, fans from buying tickets, and the stadium unavailable to host public events."

Now, not to make light of swine flu (EVER!) but, really? Couldn't they just rent out a baseball park in Arizona to play the games? Or have the league schedule the first half of their season on the road while we wait for this thing to go all SARS-y on us? I mean, that would guarantee at least some revenue without dogging the rest of the league over. And the people of Tijuana would get their baseball. Of course, people might not be so gung-ho to play road games, but worst case: the Potros could parlay multiple forfeits into postseason home-field advantage and a championship in their first year.

Via Rovell's Twitter

Flesh-Eating Bacteria Claims Life of Cruiser

The British media has been hard at work covering the story of a cruise passenger who died after contracting a flesh eating bacteria.

58-year-old Raymond Evans was on a Mediterranean cruise two months ago when he fell in a port city and injured his knee. Upon returning to the ship Evans was treated by the ship's doctor and given rounds of antibiotics.

Some time later, a black spot had shown up on the back of his knee. The knee continued to worsen, and the "blotchy blackness" and deterioration spread to his chest, elbow and fingers.

Evans was placed in the ship's hospital for care and transferred to an intensive care unit at a hospital in Alexandria, Egypt, where he died of multiple organ failure. His death came less than 24 hours after the black spot first appeared on the back of his knee. The cause: a flesh-eating bacteria called necrotizing fasciitis.

According to CDC estimates, necrotizing fasciitis causes between 10,000 and 15,000 infections in the United States every year. Of those, 2,000 to 3,000 prove fatal. The bacteria is most commonly contracted through a wound, often after surgery or injury.

Raymond Evans death was a tragedy, but it's paramount that news organizations not blow these types of events out of proportion. Even if he was infected on board the ship, it doesn't change the reality that cruising has been and remains one of the safest options for travel. It is no more dangerous than staying in a hotel in a major city or using public transportation.

Swine Flu (A H1N1 Virus) dominated the news cycle for the last two weeks as the world watched the infected count rise into the low hundreds. There was even a news story about how the only pig in Afghanistan, on display at a Kabul zoo, had been quarantined to quell local fears and misunderstandings about the virus.

According to the CDC, since January more than 13,000 Americans have died of complications with seasonal flu. The very same flu that comes around every single year. The CDC also estimates that worldwide deaths from the standard seasonal flu number between 250,000 and 500,000.

All this isn't to say that swine flu is a casual issue or that Raymond Evans' death was insignificant, both are important events and deserve to be reported. Evans' widow deserves answers about her husband's medical treatment aboard the ship and in the hospital in Alexandria and our condolences go out to her.

But none of these stories justify sounding the alarm bells over cruising or travel in general. If they do, then people may as well just stay inside for the rest of their lives, stop driving cars, stop eating at restaurants, etc...

What the world really needs right now is a vacation... not another incredibly obscure reason to be afraid.

Swine Flu: Some Good News for a Change

I'll cop to not believing in the power of swine flu. I mean, yes, it seems dangerous, but only so much in the sense that SARS was. But, I was starting to come around: that's what will happen to you if you're embedded in the media or the internet too much.

However, recent evidence from many scientists, as reported by Wired.com, appears to indicate at least some marginally good news.

[Their] findings fit the notion that more Mexicans are infected than was
originally thought, that severe cases represent a fraction of the outbreak, and
that mortality rates are lower than originally feared.

“If the calculations are correct,” said Slezak, “it’s indeed supportive of the other
data that seems to agree that this is not going to be a catastrophic
outbreak."

So, yeah. Not "catastrophic"!!!! Seriously, this is good news though; we've got everyone in the world freaking out about the swine flu, and to possibly hear that something (read: anything) "not horrible" might stem out of this piggy pandemic is a huge bonus. Carry on with your freakout.

Swine Flu Concerns Cause US Officials to Caution Against Mexican Travel

The dreaded SWINE FLU is making the "bird flu" rounds in America right now: everyone is terrified of this virus that's sweeping the nation with it's coughing and sneezing and occasional hospitalization.

And as a result, US officials are cautioning against "nonessential travel to Mexico."

This isn't the first time either (this year even!) that people are becoming terrified of our neighbors to the South. Crime sprees near Tijuana had people all kinds of freaked out earlier -- and much of that terror still remains, only now it's being amplified by the threat of semi-serious disease.

What's weird is that the CDC (Center for Disease Control) is kind of freaking out about this, yet, everyone has recovered from the dreaded SWINE FLU. I'm not saying we should take it lightly and laugh at it (Lord knows I think I actually contracted a case sitting in a phone booth at the Philadelphia airport this morning) but what I don't get is that if this virus makes people feel sick why they would treat it any differently than a normal case of the flu.

But here's a more relevant point in terms of travel: GO TO MEXICO. Seriously, do it. Swine flu isn't sweeping the entire country, no more than it is infecting all of America. Which means, right now, you can probably sneak across the border for a Caribbean vacation on the straight-up cheap. Personally, I recommend checking out some of Apple Vacations' deals.