Has Adventure Tourism Gone Too Far?

Queenstown in New Zealand, Bariloche in Argentina, Interlaken in Switzerland and Cairns in Australia all pride themselves as world adventure tourism meccas.  But unfortunately none of them are without serious injuries or death to paying customers in the last few years.   The recent spate of adventure tourism related accidents in Queenstown alone (six serious injuries including at least 3 deaths in the last 12 months) and the death of two travellers on Fraser Island Australia last week has got me thinking - has adventure tourism gone too far?

Climbing carries its own inherent risks

As we as humans seek more and more adrenalised activities are we putting too much trust into the hands of profit driven adventure tourism operators?

I remember my first Bungy jump and I remember standing on the Kawarau Bridge (the spiritual home of Bungy) thinking this is completely safe as this is these guys business - they could not afford to kill me - they would lose their business.  In a strange way that was probably quite true all those 20 years ago when adventure tourism was just a fledgling industry.

I say probably with tongue in check when I also think about a bit of an episode I had (in the same week I believe) with the new sport of para-gliding.  As paying customers we were taken 3/4 of the way up the Crown Range by one instructor and shown how to open the parachute and run like Hussain Bolt down the hill where our paraglider would fill with air lifting as gently off the ground before cliffs edge and into the guidance of the instructor way below who waved his paddles bringing us gently down after a joyous 5 minute flight.  I, however, on a beautiful calm windless Central Otago day, proceeded, through a complete lack of any ability to run fast, ran straight off the cliff with a collapsed paraglider plummeting a number of meters before the parachute miraculously caught the air arresting my fall to certain death.  Was I in Shock?  Not really.

The complete lack of training meant that I was blissfully unaware of the extent to which I had risked my life - my mate Tim on the ground however regaled the full story to me as he explained the explosion of panicked shouting between the instructors over the walkie talkies (They don’t do solo paragliding flights for beginners now-a-days).

Hanging over the jump site. Photo care of AJ Hackett Bungy NZ

If I had been injured or died in either of these adventures it seems inevitable the government regulation would have intervened in those very early adventure tourism days more than likely making the high stake adventure tourism industry that we know today less likely.  Today, it seems that the risk is just accepted as part and parcel of the product.  Tourism is big business and adventure tourism is a big money industry.  These adrenaline activities are not cheap, yet travellers of all types seem to be able to fit them into their budgets.  Sure there have been improvements in rules and regulations and safety standards but the continual pursuit to push the envelope just that little bit higher means that there are continually new activities being invented that are not covered by such laws.  Bungy in contrast is a relatively safe sport.

A case in point being the very popular activity of river surfing in New Zealand - that is, going down grade 3+ white water rivers on nothing but a body board - was completely devoid of any industry wide standards until a young English backpacker drowned early in 2008.

Equally, more adventure tourism operators means more competitive pressures on businesses.  You can Bungy all over the world for example.  Operators are sometimes pushed to operate on days that are marginal weather wise.  I heard of a sky-diving operation recently putting customers into the Remarkables Mountains because they were operating above safe wind strengths.

I guess though at the end of the day the question is, do we as travellers really waant rules and regulations pacifying all the risk and hence the adventure away?  My answer would be certainly not.  Except that when I pay to climb Everest I kind of half expect to die; but when I pay for a jet-boat ride, a canyon swing, or a heli-bike do I have the same expectations, or are most travellers as blissfully ignorant as I was on that first Bungy?