Mexico City launched Tuesday a plan of free insurance to attract more tourists who were diminished by fears for A/H1N1 flu there, the epicenter of April's A/H1N1 flu outbreak.

"Mexico City receives jobs due to the visits of foreign tourists, now we are giving something back," the city's tourism minister, Alejandro Rojas Diaz Duran, told media while launching the plan at an upscale hotel.

Under the measure, tourists checking in at hotels in the city will automatically receive the insurance coverage, and tourists that stay with local friends and relatives can also register for the coverage at any hotel with their return tickets.

The insurance, provided by Mapfre company, not only tackles with the flu symptoms, but also covers medical emergencies from road accidents to appendicitis, and provides a hotline for tourists who lose passports or need emergency advices.

"This measure will allow us to recover much faster," said Rafael Garcia Gonzalez, head of the Mexican Hotel Association, at the event. He estimated the hotel occupancy rates might rise to 70 percent in August thanks to this measure.

The average hotel occupancy rates dropped to a record low of 20 percent in late April and early May, when the government shut down most offices and public facilities to control the spread of the flu.

At the launch, the city mayor, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, handed the first insurance cards to some tourists from other Mexican states, the Dominican Republic, Spain and Germany.

Rojas declined to specify how much the city government will pay for premiums, but mentioned tourist insurance normally has a 30 dollar deposit before paying out a claim and the city government would pay that.

(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2009)