FED: Calls for surf safety awareness program for tourists

AAP General News (Australia)
12-14-1998
FED: Calls for surf safety awareness program for tourists

SYDNEY, Dec 14 AAP - A surf safety awareness program targeting international tourists was
urgently needed in the wake of recent drownings, a tourism industry body said today.

Tourism Task Force chairman John Brown said Australia had a duty of care to its visitors
and it was the joint responsibility of governments and the tourism industry to educate
travellers about surf safety.

"Many foreign tourists arrive in Australia with little or no experience in surf and get
themselves and their rescuers in trouble," Mr Brown said in a statement.

An elderly Russian tourist on an outing with a tour group at Bondi Beach drowned after
being swept up in a rip about 60 metres from the shoreline on Saturday afternoon.

The man, aged in his 60s, had been swimming outside the flags.

On Friday a young Korean man, from Campsie, died in what lifesavers described as a freak
accident in knee-depth water at Bronte Beach.

Three men were dragged under the surface and two of them resurfaced quickly but they were
unable to locate their friend.

AAP sb/bjm

KEYWORD: DROWNINGS TOURISTS

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