Tourist Accidents: An Exploratory Analysis

Health issues associated with international tourism are now attracting interest from diverse researchers as they examine the interconnections between health and tourism. Despite this new popularity, no mainstream tourism journal has published any substantial research study on this topic to date. This article examines one area of tourist health hitherto neglected in studies of travel medicine: tourist accidents. The paper commences with a review of the existing literature on tourist accidents and examines the situation in New Zealand using a number of unique data sources generated by the Accident Compensation Corporation and the Land Transport Safety Authority. Trends in international tourist accidents are discussed and the implications for their prevention are examined.