Outdoors NZ Behind Adventure Tourism Review

Outdoors New Zealand Behind Adventure Tourism Review Findings

The recommendations put forward by John Key and the Minister of Labour, Kate Wilkinson will provide a platform for safer outdoors experiences” says Outdoors New Zealand (ONZ) Chief Executive Paul Chaplow.

Commenting on the recommendations in the report released today on the Risk Management and Safety in the Adventure and Outdoor Commercial Sectors Mr Chaplow said that ONZ was pleased that the Government has agreed with the working group’s recommendations. ONZ had been a member of this working party that reviewed the safety outdoor adventure provision by commercial operators.

“Although the safety record of the sector is very good the review had identified that it was possible that some operators could operate below industry best practice in terms of safety, and that this could reflect badly on the majority who exceed best practice. A governmental review of this sector has been timely and welcomed.” said Mr. Chaplow.

The key recommendation of the Report is a registration scheme, which requires any business undertaking commercial adventure activity (where significant risks need to be managed) to register their operation and undertake an external safety audit. Many operators already request external safety audits. However until now, external safety audits have been undertaken voluntarily.

“ONZ feels the recommendations will put in place systems that close the gaps identified by the review with a low level of compliance costs providing a win/win for all involved.”

"OutdoorsMark audits go a long way in ensuring that safety systems are at benchmark standards, in line with current best practice in risk management," said Mr Chaplow.

"Through safety audits such as OutdoorsMark, we can assure everyone that outdoor adventure experiences across New Zealand are as safe as it is possible to make them in what will always be an essentially risky environment."

“The devil may be in the detail, but overall we believe this is a good outcome. For operators there will possibly be some increase in compliance costs, but we would expect this to be minimal with efficient application of tools already in existence.

If there are any concerns from ONZ, it will be around whether clubs and volunteer organisations get caught in the net. While these organisations also need robust safety systems if they are managing outdoor risks, we did not consider that part of the sector to be within the review” Mr Chaplow says.

“While it will never be possible to reduce the risk of serious incidents to zero in outdoor adventures without fundamentally taking the “adventure” out of such activities, we do believe that the outdoor sector and Government have a responsibility to ensure that all outdoor commercial operators have robust safety systems in place. We believe that the recommendations announced in the Report by the Prime Minister today will take a significant step toward ensuring this will occur right across the sector.”

There will now be further work to put these recommendations into action and ONZ has already indicated it is willing to continue its involvement in the development of the review recommendations.

ENDS

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