British Dad Not Happy With New Zealand’s New Rules for Adventure Tourism

Although New Zealand is in the process of trying to upgrade their adventure tourism rules, one British father is not happy. He says that more needs to be done in order to protect people that go on vacation in New Zealand. This is the same father that lost his 21-year-old daughter after she drowned while river boarding in New Zealand. He said that he will continue to fight for greater regulation of the country’s adventure tourism sector.

The father, Chris Jordan, found out that his daughter was killed while on an adventure tourism trip in New Zealand back in 2008. She was apparently body boarding in the Kawarau River Gorge near Queenstown.

Ever since then, Mr Jordan has led an effort to address the lack of regulations of companies that run these kids of tourism operations. He said that after she died he started to look into these companies. He said that he was just appalled at how these companies ran their outfits. There was no kind of training, no organization, no safety check, nothing.

This father’s concerns did go on to promoted John Key, the Prime Minister of New Zealaand, to launch a review of the sector. Because of this review, he is now recommending that a compulsory register of adventure tourism companies and a voluntary safety auditing scheme be used.

Although Mr Jordan welcomed any kind of change, he said that this was not enough. He said that a voluntary check is not going to get it done here. He also pointed out that he still does not see anything being done in regard to the companies that do not come up to standards.