New Zealand in safety crack down on adventure tourism
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has warned adventure tour operators to comply with new audit and certification rules or they will be hit by fines of thousands of dollars a day.
New regulations came into effect in 2011, with operators required to register with WorkSafe NZ by the start of this month.
There are still 272 yet to be registered with the majority at the field audit stage.
Key, who is also tourism minister, said he was ‘deadly serious’ about closing down operators who do not comply.
The new rules were brought in after 37 deaths were reported in the space of over four years.
"Mark my words, the legal requirements on those operators, if they are in breach of the law, can get very serious and it will be extremely serious if it starts getting into a criminal action for negligence," Key said at a Tourism Industry Association meeting.
"In the end if the United States market and the UK market and the Asian markets start running stories that New Zealand’s adventure tourism is not safe, it will, in the end, destroy the sector."
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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