According to the father of a 21-year-old British girl, who drowned while river boarding in New Zealand, the new rules for New Zealand adventure tourism are not enough. He announced that he will continue his fight for greater regulation of the country’s adventure tourism sector.

Chris Jordan’s daughter was killed back in 2008 while riding on a body board in the Kawarau River Gorge near Queenstown. He has since been leading an effort to address the lack of regulations of companies that run adventure tourism companies in New Zealand.

Mr Jordan said that after his daughter died, he looked into the management of these outfits and was just appalled. There was no training, no organizations and no safety checks. The companies just continued operating like before with no problems.

This father’s concerns, of course, prompted John Key, who is the Prime Minister of New Zealand, to launch a review of the sector. This week it was recommended that a compulsory register of adventure tourism companies and a voluntary safety auditing scheme be introduced.

Right now the New Zealand government is also considering whether instructors should require a special qualification. Of course, Mr Jordan welcomed these changes, but he said that it is not enough. More needs to happen to keep people safe. No one wants their kids to go on vacation and then get a phone call about them being killed. A voluntary check is just not good enough. He added that nor has anything been done with regard to punishing companies that do not come up to standard.

This review has shown that some 39 people have died in adventure tourism accidents in New Zealand. All of these deaths have come between 2004 and 2009.