Results of adventure tourism safety report welcome

Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 5:16 pm
Press Release: Destination Queenstown

Results of adventure tourism safety report welcomed

Destination Queenstown has welcomed the release of the Department of Labour’s Adventure Tourism Safety Report today (24 August).

Mark Quickfall, Chairman of the Destination Queenstown Board, says the review is particularly pertinent for the region given that Queenstown is the backbone of New Zealand’s adventure tourism industry.

“Prior to the review being released, Queenstown adventure tourism operators had a meeting last November with Geoff Ensor from the Tourism Industry Association to review where Queenstown was at, prepare for the summer season and produce a checklist for operators.

“Once we’ve digested the proposed framework in this review we’ll reconvene to benchmark our checklist against it.

“Adventure tourism is a $3 billion industry in New Zealand and it’s important that we do our utmost to get it right. We do have a high level of safety across the industry but there will always be areas for improvement. We welcome any guidelines which help keep New Zealand’s adventure tourism sector a world leader.”

A key outcome of the review is the introduction of a compulsory registration scheme featuring upfront safety audits which will be developed by the Department of Labour.

Queenstown Lakes District Council CEO Debra Lawson fully supports both the review and the initiative already taken by Queenstown operators and related agencies.

“The council was part of the Queenstown forum and will assist in any way we can to help operators implement outcomes from the review.”

The checklist based on the Queenstown operators forum is available from TIANZ.

The report can be found on the Department of Labour’s website at http://www.dol.govt.nz/consultation/adventure-tourism/final-report/ as well as on Destination Queenstown’s website (www.queenstown-nz.co.nz) in the Members Login area.

ENDS

© Scoop Media