Is Tramping really just a walk in the park?

Mike Daisley, CEO of the Mountain Safety Council (MSC) said it was his privilege to launch the latest insights publication, ‘A Walk In The Park?’ the councils third, this time focusing on Tramping.

Mike Daisley, CEO of the Mountain Safety Council (MSC) said it was his privilege to launch the latest insights publication, ‘A Walk In The Park?’ the councils third, this time focusing on Tramping.

“We’ve spent the last month doing a series of presentations to our partners in the sector that helped us develop this publication. It’s been great to unpack this with them at a regional level.”

“Now we get to share this with the wider Tramping community. There’s something in there for everyone.”

Daisley points out that this publication is the first step in more targeted interventions.

“It’s important to stress that this publication isn’t the end of the process. Actually, it’s quite the opposite.”

“We’ll be taking the issues highlighted in the publication and working with appropriate experts at a regional level to develop targeted initiatives so as to improve the experience for a huge number of participants.”

The publication has been developed to give the sector a firm data set to work from. Like previous publications, it’s confirmed a few long-held assumptions and challenged others.

“While some insight was known at an incident level, what wasn’t well understood was the high-level relationship to other regions or to the international participants.”

“As a sector we now have the data to be able to quantify the various issues and to work together on a strategic approach.”

“Organisations that have no experience with big data sets and the associated analysis challenges involved can often miss the point of this sort of research. The sector needed to move beyond what’s traditionally been done to get insight on where to focus efforts across New Zealand.”

“As a country we now have the evidence to move forward in a strategic and focused way, as opposed to the more ad-hoc reactive responses to incidents in the past.”

“Our partners are thrilled to have this sort of insight. It has the ability to revolutionise what they say and do in the region with respect to visitor safety.”

The report brings data from a range of sources, something Daisley said demonstrates that this publication, and the MSC, have reliable and robust insight development processes.

“For example, ACC really believes in what we’re trying to achieve. We’ve gone through a full ethics approval with ACC, so we could more comprehensively explore the injury data.”

“We’ve cross-checked all the SAR records to remove reporting double ups from the two response agencies—NZ Police, Rescue Coordination Centre—and have removed incidents that don’t specifically relate to tramping.”

“Similarly, we’ve got access to the full findings of both open and closed cases with the Coroner’s office and have read each case thoroughly to make sure the numbers were accurate.”

“You simply can’t get this sort of data access without demonstrating a high degree of aptitude and a solid research process.”

Daisley wanted to reassure those that might wonder about the safety of tramping.

“Approximately one in four Kiwi’s and around one in six international visitors go for a tramp of more than three hours each year. Given the huge number of participants, over 1.5M annually, tramping is comparatively safe activity.”

“However, there are a range of issues that can be suppressed and that’s what we’re working on with our partners in the future. Ultimately, this is about improving participant safety, and therefore the overall outdoor experience as well.”

The publication is available to view and download on the council’s website.

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