The adventure tourism review, its recommendations and the adventure activities regulations

Keep up-to-date

It is highly recommended that if you are a commercial operator of outdoor activities that you familiarise yourself  and keep up to date with progress on the recommendations that came out of the 2010 governmental Adventure Tourism Review. The Department of Labour contracted the Tourism Industry Association (TIA) and Outdoors New Zealand (ONZ) to deliver against five recommendations that came out of this important review. 

Sue Gemmell and Rachael Moore, detailed below, are the Project Leaders from within the two organisations and can be contacted at any time if you have queries concerning the adventure activities regulations.
  

The new regulations governing the commercial adventure tourism and outdoor education sectors came into effect on 1 November 2011. The adventure activities regulations sit under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992. They require operators "who provide activities that are designed to deliberately expose participants to a managed risk of serious harm" to undergo a safety audit and become registered. 

Regulation guidelines
The Department of Labour (DOL) will be releasing guidelines for operators about the regulations in early 2012. The guidelines should help clarify which activities are covered by the regulations.

Notification process
Operators who are affected by the regulations have until 30 April 2012 to notify DOL about their operation. Notification can be done online, via fax or post. Operators who are unsure whether their activity or organisation fits into the scope of the regulations should wait until DOL's guidelines come out. If you are still unsure you should go through the DOL notification process (see above), after which DOL will let you know whether you do or don't need to be registered. Find out more.

More information
For more information on the regulations, notification process or audit system contact DOL Senior Advisor Bryan Williams, email bryan.williams@dol.govt.nz

TIA and Outdoors NZ view of the new regulations
Read what TIA and Outdoors NZ had to say about the new regulations when they were announced earlier this year.

FINALLY, bookmark this website http://www.supportadventure.co.nz/ to be your one stop shop on the whole process, including a link to the monthly Adventure & Outdoor Updates to keep you up dated on the latest announcements about the regulations and what they mean for your business and sector.