A company established earlier this year to arrange low-cost medical procedures in other countries for American health care consumers said Monday that it received a “seven figure” seed round investment.Vic Lazzaro, Jr., CEO of Denver-based BridgeHealth International, declined to divulge the specific amount invested by Jovian Holdings, a New York-based private equity firm and Denver-based Tivis Capital, but said the money will be used for infrastructure, information technology systems and legal staff.Lazzaro, a 20-year health care veteran who once served as president and CEO of United Health Care Corp., Mountain States, said he expects BridgeHealth will begin serving customers in the first quarter of 2008.According to a statement, BridgeHealth will “carefully select” medical centers which are internationally accredited and often are staffed by Western-trained, board-certified physicians.”We are assembling a wide selection of dentists, physicians and accredited hospitals and are actively expanding the network to serve the needs of employer, insurers, benefit plan payers, third party administrators and consumers,” Lazzaro said.For years, Americans and Europeans have been traveling to exotic locales for plastic surgery, dental implants and Lasik eye surgery — elective procedures that insurance companies generally won’t cover.

Choice Medical Services, a leading medical tourism firm, has launched what it calls the “first major low-priced Canadian medical care services for American patients.” This is intended to help uninsured Americans and those with high out-of-pocket health expenses so they can visit Canada and access high quality medical care at up to 30 to 60 percent savings off US costs.The fast-growing medical tourism industry has led many patients to endure lengthy international flights to far-off cities like Singapore or Buenos Aires for treatment.

However, with this nearby Canadian service, Choice’s American patients can stay close to home and receive a joint replacement, appendectomy, cosmetic surgery or other common surgery at the company’s affiliated medical clinics in the Vancouver and Montreal areas.“With Choice’s assistance, our American neighbors can access the finest and most affordable Canadian medical care provided,” said Daren Jorgenson, CIO of Choice. “Each of our Canadian medical clinics is staffed by fully licensed and well-trained Canadian physicians and nurses and their support staff, providing our U.S. patients with an outstanding quality of care comparable to that at leading U.S. hospitals.

For examples of the savings, a total hip replacement costs about $39,000 in the U.S., but is $18,000 in Canada. A knee replacement is about $34,000 in the U.S., but is $15,000 in Canada. And, a breast implant is $8,900 in the U.S., but is $6,100 in Canada.Choice’s services include arranging the patient’s medical treatment, and making roundtrip travel arrangements for the patient and accompanying family members between their hometowns and the Canadian medical facilities.Jorgenson said that Canadian residents also may use Choice’s Canadian services as a means to avoid long patient waits for treatment in Canada.

Chinese will soon be able to travel to the United States on tourist visas, according to an agreement signed in Beijing yesterday. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the two countries to facilitate outbound tourist group travel grants the US Approved Destination Status (ADS) after years of negotiations, making it the 134th country on China’s list. Chinese travellers will be able to travel in groups as early as in spring. Currently, the US issues only business travel visas. The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) said the agreement would, apart from invigorating the tourism industry, provide a strong impetus to bilateral ties in such sectors as the economy, trade and culture.” The agreement will open a large and growing market for the US travel and tourism industry,” US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said yesterday. The US Department of Commerce forecast that the number of Chinese visitors would reach 579,000 annually by 2011, up from 320,000 last year.” We are very excited. We have been waiting for this day to come, and it came sooner than we thought,” said Jamie Y. Lee, chief representative of the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, the first city-level tourism office established in China. More US states and cities will likely open offices in China to promote tourism, she said. According to the MOU, one of the 14 agreements and memoranda signed during the 18th China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, US destinations will get the green light to market themselves in China.

Lindblad Expeditions (LEX), the expedition travel pioneer, has announced an unprecedented drive to raise funds and awareness around conservation efforts in the Galapagos Islands, Baja California and Central America. This campaign - TRAVEL NOW, FOR THE FUTURE - highlights Lindblad Expeditions” organizational commitment to preserving the planet’s wild and wonderful places through responsible tourism and long-term stewardship.

Launching today with a full-page announcement in the NY Times, Lindblad Expeditions is extending its commitment to long-term support of conservation in the Galapagos Islands, Baja California and Central America by donating $250 per guest to local conservation initiatives. To qualify for the donation program, guests must book their travel between November 20, 2007 and January 31, 2008 and travel must be completed before June 30, 2008. All donations resulting from this offer will be made in the name of the guest who books travel. And, in certain destinations, local NGOs will match that contribution — increasing the impact of the funds donated in the name of Lindblad guests.

Airbus president and chief executive Tom Enders predicts the sales of new passenger jets will grow by more than 5 per cent a year in a bid to meet passenger demand. The greater focus by the corporate world on green issues means that up to 85 per cent of these new planes will be more environmentally friendly, burning less fuel, generating fewer emissions and making less noise. Despite huge financial problems and a two-year delay in delivering the first of its new generation A380-superjumbos this year Airbus is leading the new plane sales race against its US rival Boeing. The European airline manufacturer expects to chalk up 1300 new plane sales this year with Boeing so far achieving 1154 orders.

Qantas has ordered more than 300 new planes. Mr Enders told the audience at the hand-over of the latest new Qantas plane that by 2025 Australian airlines would need 500 additional aircraft to meet booming demand from increased passenger numbers. Mr Enders said Qantas was also fulfilling its responsibilities in seeking to protect the ecosystem. The airline has joined a fly carbon neutral program and set a four-year deadline to cut fuel use by 7.5 per cent.

BRITISH Airways (BA) has been named the ‘World’s Leading Airline, 2007′ at the World Traveller Awards. Over 160,000 travel professionals from 190 countries voted online for the award, and the ceremony took place in the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos. BA’s commercial director, Robert Boyle, said: “We are proud to have won this award and overwhelmingly grateful to our staff, all of whom deserve thanks for continuing to make BA the ‘World’s Leading Airline.’ “BA has been working on the opening of its new base at Heathrow, terminal 5, which will open on March 27, 2008, and other developments, including the new Club World business class service across its Boeing 747 fleet, said a spokesperson.

It’s one of the worst possible travel nightmares. You’re seriously ill or injured while traveling and you have two choices: go to a local hospital and take your chances with potentially subpar treatment or pay thousands of dollars for safe medical transportation back home.

While it’s unlikely you’ll be in this situation, the risks of treatment in poor facilities (infections, botched surgeries, long recoveries) or sky-high medical evacuation costs (up to $100,000 or more) are real and can be devastating. And for travelers who have preexisting health conditions or plan to engage in adventure activities, the concern is even greater because either circumstance can exclude you from protection under many bundled travel medical insurance packages.

A Hoover man whose wife died while scuba diving on their Australian honeymoon awaits a court decision on whether he can collect on an insurance policy taken out for their trip. Gabe Watson’s wife, Christina “Tina” Thomas Watson, died Oct. 22,, during a group scuba diving expedition off the coast of Queensland. The 26-year-old had married Watson 11 days earlier. An autopsy and tests conducted in Australia determined that Watson drowned, but the cause has been the subject of a four-year investigation by Australian and U.S. police. Watson has named Old Republic Insurance Co., Travelex Insurance Services Inc. and Get Away Travel in a lawsuit for denying policy payment and causing him monetary damages and mental anguish.

The suit is scheduled to be heard in February in Jefferson County Circuit Court. The suit asks for approximately $45,000 in payment on the policy and unspecified punitive and mental anguish damages. According to the suit, filed March 30, , the policy provides $25,000 for common carrier accidental death benefit and a $10,000 benefit for 24-hour, or around-the-clock, accidental death. The policy also provides for such matters as trip cancellation or interruption, medical expense, itinerary change and baggage delay.

The hyper-security that is now the norm for regular passenger travel is an unleashed beast that knows no bounds. Quite recently I pointed to but now it appears the entire information structure built around stepping on a flight is to undergo some drastic changes.

All travellers in the U.S. will be required to get government-issued credentials and official clearance before every flight, both within the United States as well as internationally.All the dire predictions made about the Department of Homeland Security made at the time of its inception are steadily bearing fruit, and very bitter ones at that I might add.

Romantic Victorian-styled bed and breakfasts stays, walks on the beach, hunting rarities in antiques shops. Skydiving and sailing, kayaking and surfing. Golf, golf and even more golf. Dining and wine-tasting and spa treatments. And then there are the sunsets. Whatever a visitor could want, it’s probably here for the asking. But whether they’re honeymoon getaways, family vacations or business travels, every one of those visits has at least one thing in common: that visitor had to get here somehow.

And these days, the likelihood is increasing that the tourist’s experience started with a flight. Tourism experts say most of the visitors who come to the Monterey region still arrive here by car. The bulk of them arrive in summer, on long weekends, on holidays, from the Bay Area, from Fresno and Sacramento, even Los Angeles. Mostly, they’re travelers on a road trip toward relief from the traffic, the smog, the heat, from work and housework and the humdrum of the everyday. Californians make up 85 percent of personal trips within the state, according to the California Travel and Tourism Commission, and of those, 75 percent are leisure travelers. Tourists to the Monterey Peninsula may have 1,001 ways to spend their time here.