Troy Collings
Collings in 2013
Born1986 or 1987
DiedFebruary or March 2020 (aged 33)[1]
NationalityNew Zealand
Alma materUniversity of Auckland
Occupations
  • Businessman
  • tour guide
Years active2008–2020
Known forCo-founding Young Pioneer Tours

Troy Michael Collings (1986 or 1987 – February or March 2020) was a New Zealand businessman and tour guide. In 2008, he co-founded Young Pioneer Tours,[2] a company known for specialising in low-cost tours of North Korea and other remote places.

Personal life

Collings was from Auckland, New Zealand.[3][4] He graduated from the University of Auckland business school.[3]

On 5 March 2020, it was announced that he had recently died of a heart attack at the age of 33.[1][3][5][4]

Career

Collings became interested in North Korea after watching the 2004 documentary A State of Mind about North Korean gymnasts training for the 2003 Pyongyang Arirang Mass Games.[3][5] He later went on a research tour to the country.[4]

Collings was an advocate for North Korean tourism.[5] He is quoted as saying that North Korea is open to everyone except South Koreans and journalists.[6] He helped open the Tumen-Namyang border between China and North Korea to foreign tourists.[4] He was the first westerner to travel across the Tumen-Namyang border,[4] when he led a tour group across the border in 2013.[7][8] In 2012, he launched the Pyongyang Deaf and Blind Centre charity.[7]

In 2015, Collings confirmed the reopening of the North Korean border after an ebola scare.[9] In the same year, he spoke about North Korean citizens having an ever-increasing choice of food at the Kwangbok Department Store in Pyongyang.[10] In 2017, he was quoted as saying that hemp was as cheap as tobacco in North Korea.[11][12]

Young Pioneer Tours

In 2008, Collings and Gareth Johnson founded Young Pioneer Tours while living as expatriates in China.[3][5][6] The company is registered in China,[13] and Collings worked as a managing director.[14] One of their aims was to make travelling to North Korea affordable; their tours cost around half the price of existing tours to the country.[5][15] At the time, a trip to North Korea cost about €2000, but Collings offered trips from €795.[7] Collings believed that engaging people with North Korea could lead to "less mutual distrust in the future."[16]

As well as tours to North Korea, the company includes tours of Chernobyl in Ukraine, East Timor, and Nauru in Micronesia.[3][5] The organisation also offers short-term study trips to Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, a Chinese-funded language centre.[14]

In 2017, Young Pioneer Tours were criticised after the death of Otto Warmbier, a U.S. citizen who was on a tour with the company. Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years on a charge of subversion and died in 2017.[3] After Warmbier's death, Collings maintained that North Korea was a "safe place to visit", as Warmbier was the first person on a Young Pioneer Tour to be arrested.[17][18] He maintained that North Korea was safe as long as local laws were adhered to, and also refuted claims that Young Pioneer tours targeted Americans, saying that none of their advertising had focused on Americans.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 "Company Statement Regarding Troy Collings' Passing". 5 March 2020. Troy passed away last week from a heart attack.
  2. ↑ "About Young Pioneer Tours Team". Young Pioneer Tours. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Choe, Sang-hun (6 March 2020). "Troy Collings, 33, Who Took Travelers Into North Korea, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "North Korea's 'visionary' Kiwi tour guide dies aged 33". Stuff. 6 March 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Troy Collings: North Korea's 'first budget travel agent' dies aged 33". BBC News. 7 March 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  6. 1 2 Baran, Michelle (29 May 2013). "Taboo travel". Travel Weekly. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 "È morto Troy Collings, visionario e pioniere dei viaggi in Corea del Nord". Rai News24 (in Italian). 6 March 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  8. ↑ Ferris, Joseph (7 March 2020). "With the passing of YPT's Troy Collings let me share remembrances from our historic Tumen – Namyang – North Hamgyong spring 2013 #northkorea trip". Twitter.
  9. ↑ "North Korea reopens borders after Ebola fails to show up". Reuters. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2020 – via The Guardian.
  10. ↑ James, Pearson; Ju-Min, Park (4 June 2015). "The rise of North Korea's consumer comrades". Stuff. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  11. ↑ Robinson, Melia (5 May 2017). "North Korea has been branded as a 'weed-smoker's paradise' — but the truth is more complicated". Business Insider. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  12. ↑ Talmadge, Eric (11 January 2017). "North Korea is a bad trip if you're looking to get high". Associated Press. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  13. ↑ Pearson, James (23 January 2016). "U.S. student detained in North Korea 'over hotel incident'". Reuters. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  14. 1 2 Quinn, Callan (3 January 2020). "Travel bans, adventure, isolation: study abroad in North Korea". The Pie News. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  15. ↑ O'Carroll, Chad (5 March 2020). "Troy Collings, Managing Director of North Korea travel company YPT, dies at 33". NK News. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  16. 1 2 Berlinger, Joshua; Ullah, Zahra; George, Steve (20 June 2017). "Is North Korea's tourism industry luring Americans into a trap?". CNN. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  17. ↑ Hotham, Oliver (16 June 2017). "Company that brought Otto Warmbier to N. Korea insists it's "safe" for tourists". NK News. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  18. ↑ Fifield, Anna (20 June 2017). "After Otto Warmbier's death, tourism to North Korea comes under scrutiny". The Washington Post. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
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