Many of the requirements were violated in the Park-Hotel Syamozero summer camp, where 14 children died on Saturday, experts told Vestnik Kavkaza, commenting on the tragedy in Karelia. They also spoke about criteria that would allow parents to choose a safe vacation destination for their children.
Professor of the Department of Business Process Management in Production and Service of RANEPA, Galina Dekhtyar, primarily emphasized that it is sports camps, which must meet tougher requirements.
In particular, the instructors at the camp in Karelia were under the required age and were not qualified enough for the job. "There is a national state standard for instructors and guides involved in organizing children's leisure activities: they must be 21 years or older, a group of 30 children must be accompanied by at least three adults, especially 14-year-old groups," she said.
Dekhtyar drew attention to the fact that the current system of checks allows such institutions as the Park-Hotel Syamozero to pass successfully all the formalities, even though the safety and benefits from such camps are not guaranteed. "Children's camps are being inspected frequently, but only in terms of sanitary norms and rules," the expert noted.
"In general, children's leisure activities may vary from hiking and kayaking to activities such as: language learning, military-patriotic education, sports camps. The tragedy happened with children who lived in tents on the island. At the same time, it is more or less safe to send children to Russian camps with buildings and the necessary infrastructure," Galina Dekhtyar added.
Professor of the Department of Business Process Management in Production and Service of RANEPA explained that parents should pay attention to companies, which organize children's leisure activities. "There are the Sports Tourism Association, the Center of Youth Tourism and Local History, there are camps which teach wrestling and karate, there is an association that deals with security measures. There are many organizations, and the tragedy in Syamozero should not overshadow all that has been done in the country by responsible people who organize children's leisure activities," she concluded.
The President of the Association of Domestic Tourism of Russia, Vladimir Sharov, stressed that a widespread inspection of children's camps will be carried out in the country, first of all, those with recreational activities. "Those sports and recreation camps that have been operating for several years, were in a rather good condition for the season 2016. Those camps, which today are, unfortunately, in a poor state, has not prepared properly. Rospotrebnadzor, the ministry of education, and especially the heads of the municipalities in those regions of Russia, where those camps are located, are to be held responsible," he said.
Sharov said about the criteria that will help parents to choose a safe place for the children's leisure activities. "The first criterion is the camp's reputation in terms of the service and safety standards, which must be published on the camp's website. The second criterion is to understand who is in charge of a particular camp. The website should provide information about the whole staff. The third criterion is the location of the camp in terms of safety during emergency situations: there are high-risk areas, such as large areas of open water reservoirs or mountain ranges with high potential for emergency situation," the President of the Association of Domestic Tourism of Russia said.
"The fourth criterion is the camp’s daily schedule, which would allow to understand how much activities the child would be involved in. And the last criterion is the transport infrastructure," he stressed.
