Adventure travel attracts a large number of visitors to the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. However, given recent fatalities, it is high time that the local tourism sector and relevant agencies develop a proper mechanism to ensure participants’ safety.

There are now six sites licensed for adventure travel, namely Datanla Waterfall, Tuyen Lam Lake, Madagui Forest Tourism Site, Golden Valley Tourism Site, Dasa Waterfall and Da Don River. The venues offer various adrenaline-releasing activities. However, a few dreadful accidents have occurred, causing problems for local authorities, such as the fatal accidents of three British tourists at Dalanta Waterfall in 2016 and a Korean visitor at the same venue in September this year. Ensuring tourists have great experiences and are also safe is an urgent task for the Central Highlands province. An interdisciplinary working group has been established in Lam Dong, with the participation of local authorities and tourism agencies, in order to inspect safety standards of adventure tourism product providers. The province has also paid closer attention to health checks and first aid capacity at the sites. Experiencing adventurous activities like actual tourists allows the working group to have a better insight into the product, thus enhancing their management capacity on safety standards at the sites.-VNA