By 3news.co.nz staff
There are fears the Government’s new tourism safety initiatives will force many smaller operators to close due to a spike in safety costs.
The New Zealand Professional Fishing Guides Association, one of the country’s largest organisations for outdoor adventure tourism, says the initiative will add $2000 or more to each member of the sector.
“The Prime Minister’s Initiative Review of Safety in the Tourism sector will see the end of many small tourism operators, or drive them underground,” says Mr Frank Murphy, national president of the NZPFGA.
Mr Murphy says many smaller operators who run less dangerous activities such as fly-fishing, horse trekking, and 4x4 bike tours are being unfairly hit with cost increases.
“It is ironic that the activity that prompted this safety review has not been caught up in these regulations as it was already regulated.
“Anyone casting a dry fly on a gentle river in the evening could not be compared with someone prepared to jump into a raging river with a nothing but a board and a prayer.”
Mr Murphy says there has also been minimal consultation between members and the Government.
“Most members had not been involved in any consultation and most were only just hearing about this new cost of business being forced upon them in October.”
Mr Murphy says the NZPFGA plans to join with other passive recreational activities to oppose the ban.
The national review follows the death of English tourist Emily Jordan in April 2008. Ms Jordan was river boarding in Queenstown through adventure operator Mad Dog when she became pinned under the water and drowned.
The company pleaded guilty to charges concerning their health and safety practises and was fined $66,000, and ordered to pay the Jordan family $80,000 in reparations.
Ms Jordan’s father Chris Jordan lobbied for the Government to overhaul the adventure tourism safety standards after his daughter’s death.
3 News