If a wayward travel friend is in danger, who pays for the rescue?
Relevant people suggest that public rescue and professional rescue should be combined
Our reporter Wu Lirong, "Workers' Daily" (July 04, 2021, version 03)
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In recent years, outdoor adventure sports have risen, and there have been frequent incidents of distress after travellers entered undeveloped and unopened areas without authorization.
Most of the rescue is undertaken by the public sector, which increases the burden on society.
In order to curb illegal expeditions and serve as a warning to fellow travellers, scenic spots such as Aden, Daocheng, Sichuan and Huangshan, Anhui, have explored the establishment of paid rescue mechanisms.
Professionals believe that relying on the government to pay for tourism rescue alone is not a long-term solution, and the establishment of a paid rescue mechanism is the general trend.
Paid assistance is a useful supplement to public assistance, and relevant legislation and regulations must be implemented to avoid excessive charges.
Professional rescue should be vigorously developed, and paid rescue should be combined with public rescue to improve the level of rescue.
Recently, the Culture and Tourism Bureau of Huangshan City, Anhui Province asked the society for opinions and plans to expand the scope of the paid rescue from the Huangshan Mountain Scenic Area to the mountainous scenic spots of the whole city.
This news aroused heated discussion among netizens. In an online voting involving nearly 7,000 people, 69% of the people who supported the implementation of paid assistance were as high as 69%, and another 23% suggested that it should be promoted nationwide.
Opposing voices believe that the rescue should be based on a humanitarian spirit and should not be linked to money. They are even more worried that there will be more regulatory problems when interests are involved.
In recent years, outdoor adventure sports have risen, and there have been frequent incidents of travellers entering the restricted area in distress without authorization, and the local area will actively organize rescue operations.
How should the rescue fee be paid for a wayward travel friend in distress?
The wayward travel companions have frequent accidents, and most of the rescues are free
In June of this year, a tourist trespassed into an unopened area in Qingdao's Laoshan Scenic Area. After being injured, he was exhausted and unable to walk.
The scenic area organized an emergency rescue team of 10 people, and the injured tourists were safely sent down the mountain.
In August 2020, 12 tourists trespassed in the Shimentai Nature Reserve in Guangdong. Heavy rains upstream caused the stream to skyrocket for a short time and 7 people were washed away by the flood.
After an emergency search and rescue, 4 people were rescued and 3 people drowned unfortunately.
In May 2020, 21 travel companions trespassed into the unopened area of Guniujiang Scenic Area in Anhui and were trapped deep in the mountains.
Rescuers went into the mountains to find people with flashlights. After more than 7 hours of emergency rescue, all the trapped travellers escaped.
In recent years, there have been frequent occurrences of travel accidents in violation of the rules.
The reporter learned that the main body of my country's tourism emergency rescue is mainly the public sector and non-governmental rescue teams of a public welfare nature.
In reality, most of these rescues are free in the spirit of humanitarianism.
Therefore, whenever a donkey travels to a scenic spot and is rescued, there are criticisms, believing that the donkey’s willfulness is not only irresponsible for their own lives, but also consumes public resources and increases social burdens.
In fact, the law stipulates that tourists should bear part of the rescue costs.
Article 82 of the Tourism Law stipulates: When the personal and property safety of tourists is in danger, they have the right to request timely assistance from tourism operators, local governments and relevant agencies.
After the tourists accept the assistance of relevant organizations or institutions, they shall pay the expenses that should be borne by the individual.
As for the conditions and proportions of personal expenses, there are no specific regulations.
In order to ensure the safety of resources in scenic spots and the personal safety of tourists, and to provide a warning for those who enter undeveloped and unopened areas without authorization, some scenic spots are exploring the implementation of paid rescue.
Implement paid rescue to curb illegal expeditions
In the draft "Guiding Opinions on Paid Rescue of Mountain Scenic Spots in Huangshan City", paid rescue refers to tourists who fail to comply with Huangshan City’s tourist attractions travel regulations, enter undeveloped and unopened areas without authorization and fall into a trapped or dangerous state, and the local government completes the rescue. Afterwards, the tourism activity organizer and the rescued person shall bear the corresponding rescue costs.
Paid rescue adheres to the principles of first rescue and then recovery, and the combination of paid rescue and public rescue.
Paid rescue costs include labor, pre-hospital treatment, traffic, accident insurance, logistics support, and the introduction of third-party rescue forces during the rescue process.
In fact, Huangshan City introduced paid rescue implementation measures for Huangshan Scenic Area in 2018.
In 2017, Huangshan Scenic Area carried out as many as 483 rescues. Among the various rescues, the most difficult, dangerous, and costly rescue was the rescue of trapped travellers after entering undeveloped and unopened areas without authorization.
In 2017 alone, there were more than 10 such emergency rescues, incurring a large cost of manpower and material resources, and such rescue expenses were basically paid by the Huangshan Management Committee.
The local believes that paid rescue can serve as a warning to those who enter the mountains in violation of regulations, protect the safety of explorers, and allow more limited rescue forces to be used for the rescue of tourists who enter the mountains in an orderly manner.
According to statistics, after the implementation of the paid rescue method, the number of illegal expedition fellows intercepted and investigated in Huangshan Scenic Area has significantly decreased.
In 2019, the first case of paid rescue occurred in Huangshan Scenic Area.
A tourist who entered an undeveloped area without authorization was trapped. A total of 31 people were dispatched to the local area for emergency rescue. The total cost of rescue was 15,227 yuan, of which 3206 yuan was paid for rescue, which was borne by the tourist.
The Huangshan Management Committee published the details of the rescue cost on the official website, and emphasized that the implementation of paid rescue is not to "collect money", but to effectively curb unauthorized entry into undeveloped and unopened areas for exploration, and to better protect tourists Safety of life and property and safety of ecological resources in scenic spots.
Huangshan is not the first scenic spot to implement paid rescue.
As early as 2014, the Yading Scenic Spot in Daocheng, Sichuan began to trial paid rescue.
According to the relevant local person in charge, many travel companions do not listen to dissuasion and are keen to take risks. The rescue cases are increasing year by year, and the rescue costs incurred exceed one million yuan each year.
In 2018, Daocheng Yading Scenic Area officially implemented paid rescue, divided into different regions, and the rescue cost was 15,000 yuan.
During the "May 1st" period this year, several travel companions illegally crossed the Qinling Ao-Tai Line. After two travel companions were rescued, their family members deducted the fare of the search and rescue team. This incident caused many criticisms.
The local government stated that it would impose penalties on violators in accordance with the nature reserve regulations and recover search and rescue expenses.
Develop professional rescue and integrate with public rescue
The promulgation of the Civil Code made the principle of "self-willing to risk" known to the public.
"Self-consensual risk" means that the actor foresees the risk of a particular activity and still voluntarily participates in the activity, and the actor shall bear the responsibility for the damage caused by the risk that he foresees.
Li Guang, deputy secretary-general of the Tourism Law Research Institute of Beijing Law Society, believes that tourists who enter the undeveloped and unopened areas of the scenic area and need to be rescued need to bear the corresponding rescue costs, which is a concrete manifestation of "self-contained risk" in tourism activities. .
"Compared with basic rights such as the right to education, the right to travel is a kind of'luxury right' and should not occupy too much national taxation and social resources." Liu Simin, vice president of the Tourism Branch of the China Future Research Society, said that the traveller violated regulations and involved insurance. The consequences should of course be borne by itself.
Relevant laws and regulations can be further improved, the proportion and content of specific rescue costs can be refined, and the charging standards can be determined.
Some industry analysts believe that relying on the government to pay for tourism rescue alone is not a long-term solution, and the establishment of a paid rescue mechanism is the general trend.
Paid assistance is a useful supplement to public assistance, and relevant legislation and regulations must be implemented to avoid excessive charges.
Scenic spots can introduce third-party professional rescue agencies to cooperate in rescue; large scenic spots with strong needs can build their own commercial rescue systems; small and medium scenic spots can form regional rescue alliances to share resources.
Liu Simin believes that it will be difficult to change the situation where official rescue is the mainstay for a long time, but a fully market-oriented tourist rescue is also undesirable. The cost is too high for the rescued. Consider setting up adventure travel insurance to transfer risks; increase the rescue and recovery efforts for explorers who have the ability to pay according to the law; and vigorously support the development of professional rescue volunteer teams.