We're not the cowboys, say tour operators

Rob Fort feels his Coromandel kayak guiding business is threatened by the cost of the Government-ordered safety audits on adventure tourism operators. Photo / Christine Cornege

An experienced kayak fishing guide says he will stop offering tours because of the cost of new safety checks. Alison Smith talks to those in the adventure tourism industry who claim the changes have gone too far

Rob Fort's guided fishing business in Coromandel has helped put New Zealand on the map. But from November 1, he says, he will no longer take tourists out on the water because of the high cost of new safety audits.

The regulations are aimed at improving the safety of the adventure tourism industry after a string of fatal accidents in recent years.

But industry insiders say the changes will put highly experienced small operators out of business and could leave tourists more at risk in the outdoors.

Fort is among small business operators on the Coromandel that have been quoted between $1400 and $1700 a day for initial visits by the Government-approved safety auditors, and several days are often required to complete an audit. He says the ongoing costs will force him to shut down his guided operations while a business that rents gear and sends tourists out on their own would be exempt from the costs.

"They've set this up to get rid of the cowboys and I'm all for that but it's not the cowboys getting affected here," says Fort, an award winning kayak fishing film maker with 20 years' experience in the sport.

"You just have to look at campgrounds as an example. Some of them have very old gear that aren't regularly assessed and they rent it out to anybody. These people can just paddle offshore with no follow-up. It leaves it open to a lot more accidents."

Fort has had no safety incidents in the seven years since he started his guiding and gear sales business Coromandel Kayak Adventures from Coromandel Town on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Considered an expert in the sport, in 2013 he won an international award for best kayak fishing film which toured 103 countries, and he has paddled in 3m-4m swells chasing tuna and other species in his recreation time.

He guides customers from locations around the Coromandel and produced an 85-page health and safety plan as part of the concession process with the Thames-Coromandel District Council.

He had invested heavily in marketing to build the guiding business up internationally and nationally, but will now stop doing guided tours due to the costs, and must focus instead on sales of his own branded range of kayak fishing accessories sold online and at the couple's Coromandel Town shop.

Partner Janet Hall said the couple always put customer safety first and in doing so they turned down more than 50 per cent of bookings last year due to weather and sea conditions. The costs of $4500 that they were quoted for an initial safety audit by a Worksafe NZ-approved auditing company made it no longer worthwhile to operate tours.

"Rob pretty much wrote the rules with this sport, he was one of the first professional kayak fishing operators in New Zealand and that's the frustrating thing - someone that doesn't know the industry half as well as him is going to be paid to tell him he's doing his business right," she said.

Cathedral Cove Kayak director Mike Grogan said he applauded efforts to improve safety when there had been incidents around the country that demonstrated self-regulation was not enough to ensure the safety of customers.

However his concern was over guided operators having to pay the costs and undergo the audits while hire-only companies were exempt. "We solemnly believe people shouldn't be doing independent hire from this location on an exposed coast, but if we didn't want to offer freedom hire and we were forced into that position that would be where the accidents would start happening."

Cathedral Cove Kayaks is undergoing the process in order to make the November 1 deadline. It is an additional cost that the business would have to absorb. "Unfortunately you can't just pass your costs on to your customer because sooner or later your customers will stop coming."

The Government's labour service has reasoned that regulations should not cover equipment hireage or non-guided services because customers do not have the same level of expectation over their care as they would when being guided by professionals.

But there are grave concerns that experience and common sense is being lost in favour of report writing.

"If you want to avoid a $3000 audit, then you need to run things like a taxi service apparently. Personally, I don't think this is going to be good for tourism, " said industry commentator Carl Muir, who founded Epic Adventures fishing charters and now owns a marketing business that assists tourism operators.

Muir blogged on the topic and says his site temporarily crashed because of the overwhelming response. "This whole process seems to me like it is going to promote unsafe practices instead of getting rid of them.

"What always appealed to me about getting into tourism was being part of an energetic, grass roots industry driven by authenticity and passion. Those who are not full-time are going to be forced to question whether they should be doing business at all."

Operators must be audited no less than once every three years, with "surveillance audits" decided upon by the auditor, and highly likely after the first year, "so a history is built up with the operator and auditors" said Worksafe Senior Communications Adviser for Adventure Activities, Joe Wallace.

He said the costs were inevitable with "a robust regime designed to effectively regulate the adventure activity industry".

What's changing

• From November 1 adventure tourism operators offering activities that "deliberately expose participants to a risk of serious harm" must undergo a safety audit by a recognised auditor and be registered with WorkSafe NZ.

• Activities run by sports clubs and schools - or events run by sports clubs or recreation clubs - are excluded, as are activities that are not taught or guided.