Young Pioneer Tours
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Young Pioneer Tours (YPT) is a Chinese travel company that specialises in tours to North Korea. Founded in May 2008 by British expatriate Gareth Johnson, the company is based in Xi'an, China.
Young Pioneer Tours is the second largest travel agency behind Koryo Tours in taking tourists to North Korea. Every year, it takes to North Korea roughly 1,500 to 2,000 tourists, 1,000 of whom are from European countries. In addition to tours in North Korea, it also provides tours in destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Nearly all of its tours are led by guides. Most of its tours start and finish in Beijing.
In January 2016, Young Pioneer Tours led a trip to North Korea that Otto Warmbier attended. Warmbier was detained by North Korea for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, was in captivity for 17 months, and died six days after being released and transported to the United States. The incident drew attention to Young Pioneer Tours' heavy drinking culture and the company's downplaying the danger of visiting countries the United States Department of State had warned Americans against traveling to. A day after Warmbier's death, the company announced it would stop taking American citizens on tours to North Korea.
History[edit]
Young Pioneer Tours was founded in May 2008[1][2] by Gareth Johnson, a British expatriate.[3] Johnson established the company after he was able to travel inexpensively in his initial trip to North Korea by traveling through Hong Kong.[4] Young Pioneer Tours has taken travelers on visits to North Korea since its founding.[5]
Based in the Chinese city Xi'an, Young Pioneer tours is managed by employees from Australia, Britain, China, Ireland and New Zealand.[6][2] A majority of the company's services are tour guide–led trips that start and finish in Beijing.[7] In 2015, the company had 18 employees.[8] A large portion of its clientele are repeat customers and nearly all of its tour guide employees had been past customers.[9] It focuses on providing tours to North Korea.[10] The company began offering trips to Iran in June 2012,[5] where it leads ski outings.[11] It also leads tours to Chernobyl in Ukraine and Chechyna in Russia as well as Antarctica, Burma, Eritrea, ghost towns in Inner Mongolia, and Yemen.[11][12][13]
Young Pioneer Tours is permitted to lead trips to North Korea which only a very small number of companies can do.[6] Before a trip, it assists its customers in obtaining North Korea travel visas.[7] During the trip, the company takes care of customers' food and lodging.[7] During Saint Patrick's Day trips to Pyongyang, the company has for multiple years organized pub crawls.[14] In March 2011, Young Pioneer Tours offered a "March Juche Idea and Korean Language Study Tour" trip in which Workers' Party of Korea representatives would teach visitors about Juche, a North Korean ideology advanced by former leader Kim Il-sung and frequently translated into "self-reliance".[1] Foreigners rarely visit Sinuiju, a North Korean town that borders China's Dandong city.[10] After North Korea granted them permission, the company in 2014 began taking travelers to lodge at night at Sinuiju, becoming the second agency after Koryo Tours to do so.[10]
In 2012, the company was the second largest travel agency bringing tourists into North Korea.[15] In 2018, it remained the second largest agency bringing tourists into North Korea, behind Beijing–based Koryo Tours.[9] Around 1,500 to 2,000 people travel to North Korea each year through Young Pioneer Tours.[16] About 1,000 of those people are Europeans who come primarily from the countries Germany, Dutch, the Netherlands, Britain, Finland, and Ireland.[16] Young Pioneer Tours said it had a "slight decline" in visits to North Korea in 2016 and attributed the fall to news reports about the deteriorating North Korea–United States relations.[16]
Otto Warmbier death and criticism[edit]
In January 2016, Young Pioneer Tours organized a trip to Pyongyang attended by Otto Warmbier. Warmbier was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport following allegations that he had attempted to take without permission a propaganda poster. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Released after 17 months in jail, Warmbier died in June 2017 six days after he was released and transported back to the United States.[14] After Warmbier's death, Young Pioneer Tours issued a statement, "The way his detention was handled was appalling, and a tragedy like this must never be repeated." The company announced the day after Warmbier's death that it would cease taking United States citizens to North Korea.[14]
A June 2017 article in The New York Times noted that Young Pioneer Tours' website was less cautious than other travel companies in answering questions about Americans' traveling to North Korea.[6] The website said North Korea is "probably one of the safest places on Earth to visit" and said it is "Not at all" a problem for Americans to visit despite a travel warning from the United States Department of State advising Americans not to visit owing to "serious risk of arrest and long-term detention".[6]
The company's slogan is "Budget tours to destinations your mother wants you to stay away from."[11] Warmbier's detention and death drew significant negative attention to the company, its practices, and its slogan.[9][17][18] ConsumerAffairs's Amy Martyn said many images posted on Instagram show the company's tour guides "drinking whiskey straight from the bottle" and this behavior would be unimportant "had the guides not been entrusted with leading tourists around a country that can be openly hostile to foreigners".[18] The Associated Press's Gerry Shih pointed out that Young Pioneer Tours had been involved with several "cautionary tales" such as a customer who did a handstand next to a Pyongyang mausoleum containing the remains of the Kim dynasty's first two generations.[17] This caused a North Korean tour guide to be fired.[17] In one North Korea visit, company cofounder Gareth Johnson was intoxicated and tried to disembark from a train in motion leading to him breaking his ankle.[9][17] Kent Russell wrote in HuffPost, "The negative press coverage, the group's own tone-deaf communiques, motherloving Gareth—all of it pointed to YPT being a clutch of maladaptive nihilists who made good money escorting louche tools to the most politically and culturally sensitive locations on the planet."[9]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Woo, Jaeyeon (2011-01-26). "Juche! NK Trip Features Ideology Lessons". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Yang, Jie; Han, Liyan; Ren, Guangyu (2014), "China-to-North Korea Tourism: A Leisure Business on a Tense Peninsula", North Korean Review, 10 (2): 57–70CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ Shearlaw, Maeve (2017-06-20). "Tour firm used by Otto Warmbier stops taking US citizens to North Korea". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
- ↑ Kurmelovs, Royce (2016-07-07). "How a Working Class Londoner Started Running Tours Into North Korea". Vice. Archived from the original on 2018-02-27. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "NK Tour Operator Launches Iran Service". NK News. 2012-01-31. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Ramzy, Austin; Choe, Sang-hun (2017-06-16). "Otto Warmbier Came Home in a Coma. Travel Company Says North Korea Is 'Extremely Safe!'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2018-03-01. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Wood, Drew (2013-06-22). "Vacations to North Korea Exist, And You Can Go On One!". Thrillist. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
- ↑ "Fancy a holiday... in North Korea? Chatham man Gareth Johnson can make it happen". KM Group. 2015-06-01. Archived from the original on 2018-03-01. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Russell, Kent (2018-01-25). "The Disaster Tourist". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 2018-02-27. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Kang, Tae-jun (2014-03-17). "Tours to N. Korean border town now possible via two companies". NK News. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Montero, David; Bennett, Brian; Meyers, Jessica (2017-06-13). "North Korea releases American student reportedly in coma as Dennis Rodman returns to the reclusive nation". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2018-03-01. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
- ↑ Simone, Alina (2014-08-12). "Want to tour a toxic beach? 'Anti-tourism' explores the darker, dirtier corners of the world". Public Radio International. Archived from the original on 2018-03-01. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
- ↑ Konneker, Liz (2017-06-15). "Travel Agency Specializes in Countries Mom Would Warn to 'Stay Away From'". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Cheng, Jonathan (2017-06-20). "After Otto Warmbier's Death, North Korea Tour Operator Stops Taking American Bookings". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2017-06-20. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
- ↑ Yu, Agnes (2012-07-24). "Across the border and into the North". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 2018-02-27. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Cuddy, Alice (2017-10-13). "Who travels to North Korea and why?". Euronews. Archived from the original on 2018-03-01. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Shih, Gerry (2017-06-21). "Gung-ho culture at tour agency Warmbier used on North Korea trip". Chicago Tribune. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Martyn, Amy (2017-06-19). "Booze, bribes and propaganda: The company that promises 'safe' travel in North Korea". ConsumerAffairs. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
External links[edit]
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