Attack on 3 Chinese Tourists, 'Reputation' Comments Commence

Labour's tourism spokesman Kelvin Davis has been swift in issuing a strong rebuke as part of a damage limitation exercise following the knife point robbery and assault of three Chinese tourists in Northland. At least we're not seeing the usual 'isolated incident' comment trotted out, so some credit to him for that.

Time to get tough on the causes of crime. Want to send out a really strong message to the community? catch those responsible and impose stiff sentences. In the meantime launch a honest campaign to warn visitors about the risks present in NZ so that they're not sitting ducks - savvy consummers are nothing to be afraid of. A false image makes visitors vulnerable, use incidents like these to highlight the dangers and tell people they need to be as street-wise in NZ as in any other Western country with a high crime rate.

The attack took place at Te Paki, at the foot of 90 Mile Beach a popular tourist location about 100 km away from the campsite at Ahipara where French Tourist Anthony Cressend was beaten up shortly after arrival.

Other recent high profile attacks in the region have included at least 2 sex attacks attacks at Haruru Falls near Paihia in the Bay of Isands - one an horrific sexual assault on a 27 year-old English tourist and the other a young Dutch couple on their honeymoon who were raped, assaulted and robbed kidnapped by men posing as police officers.

Keith Anthony McEwen, 30, and Christopher Mana Manuel, 27, the men who kidnapped and robbed the Dutch couple at Haruru Falls whilst posing as police officers were only sentenced to 10 and 6 year non parole periods respectively.

McEwen had previous convictions for a $300,000 burglary at the Kelly Tarlton museum in Waitangi, aggravated robbery, firearms and various other theft and dishonesty offences. Was his sentence sufficient for a repeat offender, should a three strikes and you're out rule be adopted in New Zealand? unfortunately the country already has the 'second highest imprisonment rate in the Western World.' the majority of it for Violence, Sexual and Property Crimes.

At Whangarei Falls two American men Patrick Dykstra and Kelsey McGinley were sleeping in what they thought was a safe location when 4 men dragged them from their vehicle beat them up and robbed them.

Tourist attacks are bad for business

from Voxy:

"The Far North community must send a strong message that it won't tolerate the type of cowardly attack experienced yesterday by three Chinese tourists near Te Paki, says Labour Tourism Spokesperson Kelvin Davis.
The three tourists who stopped to assist two men they believed had broken down were set upon in an abhorrent ambush

"The incident has left the group shocked and stunned, and is another in a string of attacks on tourists in the Far North over the last few years. Their faith in New Zealand has been shattered," Kelvin Davis said.
"These idiots just don't seem to realise that our culture tells us to care for our manuhiri not bash them, or that they are stuffing things up for family and friends involved in Northland's tourism industry.
"Someone will know who these guys are or would have seen their red or maroon station wagon with fishing rods sticking out the windows. Someone up North will know them, and for the sake of maintaining New Zealand's reputation in the eyes of both these and other tourists, the police need to be informed of their whereabouts.
"Tourism is New Zealand's biggest export earner. One in ten New Zealanders are employed because of the tourism industry, and it is vital in the job-poor North.
"The number of Chinese tourists visiting New Zealand has dropped significantly over the last year because of the global recession and the swine flu pandemic. We need to encourage more tourists to visit New Zealand and the Far North, so we can support our families and friends to make an honest dollar through the opportunities tourism presents.
"We can do that by demonstrating manaakitanga to manuhiri and by speaking out strongly and forcefully against those who disrespect this tikanga," Kelvin Davis said."

You may also be interested in:
4 International tourists (backpackers) robbed at gunpoint at Kerosene Creek

3 Chinese tourists robbed, beaten at knifepoint by men they tried to help

'Anthony Cressend attacked at Northland campsite'
'False image makes visitors vulnerable'

Anthony Cressend Attacked At Northland Campsite

The New Zealand Herald is running a story about a group of tourists camping at a 'Northland' campsite, the name of which isn't stated (why is that?) but a report the following day stated the attack took place in Ahipara. One of the group, Frenchman Anthony Cressend, went for a walk after arriving at the campsite in darkness. No one advised them that walking alone wasn't a safe thing to do.

Unfortunately Anthony Cressend says he was then set upon by a gang of three men who broke his jaw in three places and kicked-in his teeth. It's strange that no date is given for the attack, how long ago did this happen and was it around the time of the French Rugby team's tour?

When the incident was reported to the police the paper stated that:

"Police told him they would not investigate without a Kiwi contact number.
"As soon as I said that [he did not have a New Zealand cellphone] the [officer] flipped over his book and said 'Well we can't call outside of New Zealand cell zone'," said travel companion Emily Holloway, 24."

There is no indication from the report if police later decided to investigate the matter further, which may be why the group took their story to the press. The report finishes with "They told their story as a warning to other tourists." (It does make one wonder how many other attacks have gone unnoticed because of similar failures to own a NZ sim card)
Read the full story here : Savage attack ruins experience of NZ

Albania feels safer than New Zealand: (from the Herald report)

"....the trio are trying to stay positive.
But they are shocked by the random attack in a country they had thought to be safe and friendly.
"Even in Albania, which is really dangerous, we have never had this problem, even in Bolivia ... They are just friendly with you and you don't feel it's dangerous," Mr Collomb said."

Damage limitation or reality check?
Whilst some quarters will try to do a damage limitation exercise on this story (we expect to see the "isolated incident" comments any moment) others will take the opportunity to again warn tourists of the dangers they face in New Zealand, there may be more of this type of article in the coming days "False image makes visitors vulnerable" published after the Mathieu Bastareaud furore.

Regular readers of this blog will know that attacks on tourists are not unusual in New Zealand, (Whangarei Council once pondered whether to counter the negative stories or improve the situation -see bottom of page)

Most of us already know about the high profile assaults and rapes of tourists, students and back packers of all nationalities. We know that tourists and visitors need to be as vigilant in NZ as they would be anywhere in the world with high reported crime rates and high numbers of crime victims:
Some tourist attacks in New Zealand
*American peace corp twins were robbed in Christchurch.
*Dutch couple raped and robbed on a campsite in Tuatapere whilst on honeymoon.
*British tourist sexually assaulted near Hururu Falls.
*Dutch couple robbed and sexually attacked Haruru Falls whilst on honeymoon.
*Two British women robbed and sexually assaulted in their campervan at Tokomaru Bay.
*Scottish woman Karen Aim brutally murdered in Taupo.
*German woman Birgit Brauer murdered near New Plymouth.
*Korean man Jae Hyeon Kim decapitated with a spade.
*Japanese tourist robbed at gunpoint in Oamaru.
*Irish cycle tourist Paul Mack bashed, robbed and urinated on.
*6 English and Danish tourists attacked and stabbed in Cashel Mall for having "foreign accents."
*Irish man Robby O'Brien beaten up in Westport.
*American campers Patrick Dykstra and Kelsey McGinley beaten and robbed at Whangarei Falls.
*Australian tourist sexually assaulted in broad daylight in Nelson.
*Canadian tourist left with a fractured skull outside Silver Fern backpackers in Taupo.
*British man Paul Speakman and his young son beaten and robbed in a campervan at Athenree Gorge, Katikati.

Yesterday this blog reported on the sentencing of a thug for the serious assault on Scottish visitor Stuart Martin who was left in a coma and a shoe print on his face after a street bashing in February.

The situation has been serious enough for even tourism managers to call for tourists to be more vigilant and for one victim's mother to threaten to hand out leaflets warning tourists of the dangers:

Attack sparks tourist warning

"A spokeswoman for Tourism New Zealand said New Zealand was still regarded as a safe country, but visitors needed to be made aware of the risks.

"New Zealand is seen as a warm and friendly place, and certainly what has happened is in stark contrast to that reputation," she said.

"We are always concerned about visitor safety, whether it be due to crime or safety -- when tramping, for example. It is our responsibility to get the safety message out there."

Safety messages were put out on tourism websites and leaflets given to visitors, but tourism operators could help.

"Tourism operators should think about talking to their guests about things in their area, whether that be weather or conditions on a certain track or not walking down a dark alley at night," she said.

"We do need to strike a balance with portraying New Zealand as safe, but I don't think operators should be worried about making people aware of the risks. I think most operators would be aware that there would be more damage done by an actual incident."

Tourism West Coast general manager Sonya Matthews said all tourists, from overseas or other parts of New Zealand, needed to be vigilant.

She said they should not be put off touring the country.

"I don't think we want to scare people, but they do need to take general precautions," she said."

See also a quote from General Manager's report to Whangarei District Council, April 2004:

"Tourism advisory group meeting"

"Further cases of tourists being attacked or robbed during their stay in Whangarei have made for headlines here, and an article in the New Zealand Herald. The question of whether it is possible to find ways to counter these negative stories, or improve the situation remains unanswered".

The time is long overdue to find an answer. New Zealand depends heavily on its tourism revenues and can ill afford to lose them during the recession. Improving the tourism experience for visitors will also improve the country for many residents - crime is a significant problem, NZ has the second highest total crimes per capita, the world's highest use of Cannabis and third highest use of Amphetamines.

For today's posts see: latest posts

Tourism NZ Chief Exec 'Steps Down'

It was a quiet, low key resignation that merited a few lines in today's Herald which simply stated

"Tourism New Zealand said chief executive George Hickton is stepping down after 10 years in the role.

Hickton is resigning to allow a replacement to settle in before the 2011 Rugby World Cup is hosted in New Zealand, the agency said."

A few words but they speak volumes - his resignation and the Rugby World Cup are the only things mentioned in the statement. No thanks at all for a guy who'd spent 10 years in a role that oversaw the tourism business expand exponentially in NZ and the most successful tourism campaign of all time - Saachi's '100% Pure NZ'.

In a recent video on YouTube he gave no indication at all that he had any intention of leaving Tourism NZ, or that he wouldn't be around to see it through to next year.

Remember the furore that Mathieu Bastareaud caused when he made the allegation of a street attack in Wellington? (he refused to make an official complaint to the police, who investigated it anyway) At the time Mr Hickton said the incident was a 'wake-up call for the country.'

Mr Hickton seemed to have taken M. Bastareaud's complaint in good faith, after all attacks on tourists in New Zealand are hardly unusual. His statement simply echoed those made in the past which followed attacks on tourists, such as those issued by a Tourism NZ 'spokeswoman', Tourism West Coast general manager Sonya Matthews and Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism marketing general manager Dean Gorddard in this press article: Another Tourist Attack In New Zealand - Attack sparks tourist warning

Apr 23, 2008

"With another tourist recovering from an seemingly unprovoked attack, tourism leaders are urging operators not to be afraid of warning people of the risks of travelling in New Zealand".

And of course there are the safety warnings that were issued to Asian and Dutch tourists.

Now that Mr Hickton has 'fallen on his sword' who within New Zealand will have the courage to voice their concerns next time a tourist is killed or injured and call for better information to be given to visitors?

See Also
"Lessons from the no-so-friendly isles"
"In general, it is not a bad place to live or visit and has many pluses - but it ain't the happy-friendly cove of wonderfulness that the PR mob would have you believe either. There are wrong times and places in this country and it can be downright dangerous. A wrong look here, a dodgy remark here, and you might be up the proverbial without a paddle........."

For today's posts see: latest posts