Trip planning
Tourist, be aware
Outfitters' clients must take lead in assessing experience, safety
By Sandi Gerjevic / Anchorage Daily News
The trip looked so inviting in the brochure. You paid by credit card weeks before arriving in Alaska. Now you're on the banks of a chilly, broiling river, paddle in hand. The raft seems in good shape. The guide seems professional and capable. But the river is so fast . . .
How do tourists know the outdoor adventures they choose in Alaska are safe? Is Alaska doing enough to protect tourists?
In the past few years, a rafting accident claimed a couple of tourists; helicopter and plane crashes have taken the lives of some flightseers; mountain climbers and glacier climbers have run into fatal trouble.
In 1999, six California tourists clung to an inflatable raft as their halibut charter boat sank in Cook Inlet. They and two crew members were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The captain of the fishing boat was not required to keep an inflatable raft aboard. His vessel was a ''six-pack,'' an industry term for a boat that carries no more than six paying passengers. The Coast Guard requires the captain of such a boat to be licensed, provide life jackets to passengers and submit to random drug testing, but it does not inspect, rate or monitor six-packs. It investigates safety only when there is a complaint.
''If we don't hear anything, we don't know,'' said Lt. Michael Lingaitis, a senior investigating officer for the Coast Guard.
Those who work in the travel industry say it's largely up to the tourist to gauge the danger involved in a tour as well as their own ability to react in an emergency. Tourists can be naive on both counts, said John Beiler, development specialist for the Alaska Division of Tourism. Too often they're eager to go, no questions asked.
''If (someone) opens the door on the airplane and tells you to get in, you figure he's the pilot,'' Beiler said.
Most people don't even think to ask if a vendor has a current business license, much less qualifications to guide others, he said.
There's risk inherent in any adventure or tour, said Joy Maples, director of communications for the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau. An element of danger often is a big part of the draw of adventure tours, she added.
While the bureau offers no advisories to tourists, educating them about ways to ensure their own safety might be one way Alaska can help tourists protect themselves, she said. Maples said she could not imagine how a single body could monitor the myriad tour vendors in the state.
So how can the public assess the qualifications and safety of a vendor?
|
