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Standards Development
This document establishes requirements for adventure tourism involving Water activities, relating to the operational safety of participants, leaders and assistants. This document applies to Water activities that are offered as tourism products. Tourism product design involves a product planning and development phase that is not subject to this document. Some tourism products include Water activities together with other tourism services (e.g. transfers, meals, lodging), but this document applies only to Water activities, the additional tourism services being excluded from the scope. This document is applicable to any kind of adventure tourism activity provider that offers tourism products consisting of Water activities.
Adventure tourism sector has become one of the most important tourism sectors worldwide. Since
2014,
ISO has published 6 adventure tourism standards:
- ISO 21101 – Adventure tourism – Safety management system – Requirements;
- ISO 21102 – Adventure tourism – Leaders – Personnel competences;
- ISO 21103 – Adventure tourism – Information for participants;
- ISO 20611 – Adventure tourism – Good practices for sustainability – Requirements and
recommendations;
- ISO 3021 – Adventure tourism – Hiking and trekking activities – Requirements and recommendations;
and
- ISO 3163 – Adventure Tourism – Vocabulary.
And currently, one more future ISO standard is going to be published in the next months:
- ISO/FDIS 11956 – Adventure Tourism – Cyclotourism – Requirements and recommendations.
It is acknowledged that adventure tourism organisations represent an important and growing sector
within the tourism industry and the existing standards are contributing to harmonize practices
worldwide
and enhance the quality of the services provided. These horizontal standards have set the general
framework for the development of any type of adventure tourism activity. Now that the general criteria
on
safety, competence and information have been agreed and the sector is mature enough, it is time to
continue developing specific requirements for specific activities, such as this proposal on Water
activities. In 2007 and 2017, Brazil’s National Standards Association ABNT, published Standards
defining adventure tourism service requirements in Water activities activities (ABNT NBR 15370:2018,
ABNT NBR 16708:2018, ABNT NBR 16948:2021 and ABNT NBR 17172:2024) and therefore has the
experience of developing and implementing such Brazilian Standards. During the process, the
elaboration and the revision of the standard have been carried out in accordance with good practices of
standardization. All interested parties have participated (Private sector, NGO's, Government, Tour
Operators, Workers, Communities, Development Agencies, etc.) in the development of a common
reference through an open and participative process. Brazil would like now to share this valuable input
with the ISO TC 228 community as a basis for a future ISO standard in Water activities activities. This
standard proposal is addressed to adventure tourism companies and can be implemented by micro,
small, medium and large organizations in the world. The future standard will provide the adventure
tourism industry with information about minimum requirements on the services offered to participants of adventure tourism in Water activities activities. And finally, due to Covid-19 pandemic since March
2020, after months of closure for tourism activities worldwide, participants are looking for adventure tourism activities in outdoor areas, with small groups, with more safety protocols and the Water activities have increased significantly, causing more situations of potential increase of accidents during these operations around the world.
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