Elsevier

Safety Science

Volume 38, Issue 1, June 2001, Pages 31-48
Safety Science

Accidents in the New Zealand adventure tourism industry

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-7535(00)00053-9Get rights and content

Abstract

The New Zealand adventure tourism industry was surveyed to determine the incidence of client accidents and injuries and to investigate operators’ accident investigation and reporting behaviour. The 142 adventure tourism operators who responded to the survey represented a wide and diverse range of adventure activities, including kayaking, white water rafting, mountain recreation, horse riding and guided walks. Businesses surveyed were concentrated in locations acknowledged as main centres of adventure tourism activity. Operators were asked a number of questions regarding their accident notification, investigation and reporting behaviour. Poorest accident reporting performance was found for smaller operators, and among operators from the least regulated sectors of the adventure tourism industry. A very low incidence of client injuries was reported by operators, suggesting accidents and injuries are being seriously under-reported in some sectors. Highest client injury-incidence rates were found for activities that involved the risk of falling from a moving vehicle or animal (cycle tours, quad biking, horse riding and white water rafting). Operators from these sectors frequently reported ‘falls from a height’ as accidents involving clients. Slips, trips and falls on the level were common across most sectors of the industry. A conceptual model of operators’ perceptions of common risk factors for accidents/incidents involving clients is presented. Recommendations for intervention and further research are discussed.

Introduction

Accidents are acknowledged to be a leading cause of mortality and morbidity among tourists travelling to foreign destinations (Page & Meyer, 1996, Page & Meyer, 1997, Wilks & Atherton, 1994), being the second largest cause of death among Scottish (Paixao et al., 1991) and United States overseas visitors (Hargarten et al., 1991). They are also the main reason for overseas tourist hospital admissions in Queensland, Australia (Nichol et al., 1996). The potential for events such as accidents to negatively impact on the tourism industry is also well understood (Cliff and Page, 1996; Greenaway, 1996, Wilks et al., 1996), and safety is recognised as a key factor in the selection of tourist destinations (Bovet, 1994, World Tourism Organisation, 1996). This issue was exemplified in a recent survey, reported in the New Zealand press (Bentley and Page, 2001), in which safety concerns were found to be the major hinderance to Japanese overseas travel to New Zealand. New Zealand was ranked behind Hawaii, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Singapore, Britain and Guam as a safe destination. These perceptions are believed to have been strongly affected by media reports in Japan concerning New Zealand scenic flight crashes in which Japanese tourists were killed (also see Greenaway, 1996, Page, 1997, Page & Meyer, 1997).

Accidents involving tourists have been the subject of relatively few academic publications in either the safety management or tourism literature, despite the obvious scale of the tourism safety problem, and the potential for injuries and fatalities to seriously damage the tourism industry and the economies of countries who rely on tourism (Clift and Page, 1996). Research that has been undertaken on tourist safety has identified unfamiliarity with foreign marine and road environments as important risk factors for accidents and injuries involving overseas visitors (e.g. Hartung et al., 1990, Nichol et al., 1996, Wilks & Watson, 1998). Little published work has focused on the risk of injury among domestic and international tourists participating in specific recreational activities, particularly those activities which have become collectively known as ‘adventure tourism’.

Section snippets

Understanding adventure tourism: perception and reality

Adventure tourism is a burgeoning sector of the tourism industry internationally. The adventure tourism sector encompasses a wide range of diverse activities, and may be defined as commercially operated activities involving a combination of adventure and excitement pursued in an outdoor environment. Adventure tourism is also often taken to include more passive activities associated with eco tourism (e.g. safaris and trekking in difficult terrain). As a result adventure tourism incorporates a

The scale and extent of adventure tourism accidents

While an important attraction of many of these activities is excitement and a high level of ‘perceived’ risk (Brannan & Condello, 1992, Berno & Moore, 1996), there is evidence that certain adventure tourism activities present a serious actual risk to the health and safety of participants. Hall and McArthur (1991), reported that 70% of all adventure tourism injuries and 50% of all adventure tourism fatalities in Australia were directly associated with white water rafting. New Zealand Maritime

The sample

An accident experience questionnaire was posted to 300 adventure tourism businesses operating throughout the North and South Islands of New Zealand. A stratified sample, ensuring representation of operators from a wide range of adventure tourism businesses, was drawn from a sampling frame of approximately 400 known businesses. The sampling frame was constructed from various sources, including the Adventure Tourism Council’s database of adventure tourism operators, tourist guides and brochures,

Sample characteristics

The great majority of the 142 adventure tourism businesses surveyed were either individually or jointly owned (95%). Most businesses surveyed were in the small/medium-sized category, with 89% of businesses employing 10 or less full-time equivalent (FTE) staff (including the owner/manager), and 35% employing just one or two FTE staff. This is consistent with the survey conducted by Page et al. (1999) and earlier findings of small tourism businesses conducted by Deloitte Touche Tomatsu (1995).

Discussion and conclusion

The survey has provided an initial assessment of the actual extent of the New Zealand adventure tourism accident/injury problem, and baseline data upon which further primary and secondary accident research will build. Adventure tourism operators’ reported accident experience suggested very few serious client injuries were incurred during the 12 month period, January to December, 1998. Serious injuries occurred most often during water-based activities (diving, white water rafting and marine

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by a Massey University research grant during 1999–2000.

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