Reckless guided tours

要約

Four Japanese tourists, a Chinese tour conductor and a Chinese guide were caught in a blizzard while trekking on a mountain overlooking the Great Wall outside Beijing on Nov. 3. Apparently Amuse-Travel Co., which organized the trekking tour, relied on its Chinese partner to ensure the safety of the party and never sent staff to assess the route. This violation of travel-industry guidelines ultimately cost the lives of three of the Japanese tourists.

The same firm organized a mountaineering tour to climb Hokkaido’s 2,141-meter Mount Tomuraushi in July 2009, during which eight people died from hypothermia. Due to this incident, the Japan Tourism Agency ordered the company to suspend its operations for 51 days in December 2010.

It is deplorable that a fatal accident occurred again in a mountain tour organized by the same firm. It appears that the firm did not take the disaster in Mount Tomuraushi seriously and failed to learn from it. The Japan Tourism Agency must carry out a thorough investigation of the latest disaster.

The participants in the China tour — the first of its kind to be organized by Amuse-Travel — were to trek a distance of more than 100 km on the Great Wall over a seven-day period. On Nov. 3, they were to supposed to trek 14 km in five hours but became trapped in deep snow. Their Chinese guide left them to get help.

Under guidelines issued in 2005 by the Japan Association of Travel Agents and other industry organizations, companies operating mountain tours are urged to thoroughly inspect the planned routes and gather safety information when they organize new packages. Amuse-Travel has admitted that its employees did not carry out a preliminary examination of the trekking course and instead relied on a Chinese travel agency in Beijing to plan the course. If Amuse-Travel had followed the industry’s guidelines, this disaster likely would not have happened.

Overseas mountain trekking has become popular with Japanese, especially middle-aged and elderly people. Travel agencies should strictly follow the guidelines established by the industry and plan their packages with utmost care, especially with regard to safety.

日本語の抄訳はウィークリ11月17日号のP18に掲載されています。