Gianyar Secretary, Made Gede Wisnu Wijaya, has asked owners of tourist swings to complete their permits. He also issued a letter demanding the temporary stop of swing tourism in the Tegalalang District, because of the fatal accident last week of French tourist, Patrick Jean Pierre Bouchard.
“We have already asked them to temporarily stop operations,” Wisnu said.
Wisnu said that the permit is important to protect their costumers. “The owners of the swings must complete their permits and they must fulfil the requirements, which are stated there,” he said to nusabali.com on Tuesday.
He also said that it is well known that many tourist swings in Gianyar are operating, especially along the Tegalalang valley, but most of them did not have any permits at all. “That’s why we are collecting data about these tourist swings now,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Gianyar Tourism Board (Disparda) will also call the owners of the swings to a meeting on Thursday. The Head of Gianyar Disparda, AA Bagus Ari Brahmanta, said on Tuesday that they will also bring a swing expert to the meeting. “We will call a swing expert and the permit officers to come,” he said. The meeting will be held to discuss swing tourism, safety procedures, the permits and the punishment.
“The purpose is to socialize the permits and also about safety requirements,” he continued.
Ari also said that there was no safety procedure in place for the swings as yet. He received a report that the management was negligent when the incident occurred last week because they let the French man help his child on the swing. “Maybe the height terrified the child, so the father tried to help him,” he said.
He will assign his subordinates to make a regulation about swing tourism. “We will create the regulation, so it will be the similar to rafting, trekking and the other action tourism,” he said.
The Head of Gianyar Police, Commissioner Deni Setiawan, said that the police had already questioned five witnesses, including the swing owner, but they still couldn’t set the suspect of the accident. “We are still investigating the case,” he concluded.
Source&image: Seminyak Times
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