Death prompts New Zealand adventure tourism inquiry Posted: 21 September 2009 1552 hrs
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WELLINGTON : The death of an English tourist on a guided ride down a New Zealand river has prompted an inquiry into the safety of adventure tourism, Prime Minister John Key said Monday.
Emily Jordan, 21, drowned while riverboarding -- riding on a flotation board -- down the Kawarau River near the South Island tourist centre of Queenstown in April last year.
Her grieving father Chris Jordan wrote to Key, who is also the tourism minister, saying safety standards need to be improved.
Key said he believed most adventure tourism operators had good safety standards but added there were concerns some were cowboys and safety standards were not being monitored.
Ministers from several government departments would report on the state of the sector and whether changes were needed.
"Tourism is critically important to New Zealand and we must do all we can to ensure visitor safety," Key told journalists.
"A lot of people come here and engage in forms of adventure tourism and there are always risks involved," he said.
"It is also important they are afforded the protection and care we would expect to take place and in the case of one or two of these incidences I am just not absolutely satisfied that has been the case."
Jordan drowned after becoming trapped against a rock in the river during the trip run by Queenstown company Mad Dog Riverboarding.
An inquiry fined the company after finding it did not have necessary safety equipment.
A Chinese tourist was also killed near Queenstown in September last year when a jetboat flipped in the Shotover River. The jetboat driver is scheduled to stand trial over the incident.
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