Troy Michael Collings (1986 or 1987 – February or March 2020) was a
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
businessman and tour guide. In 2008, he co-founded Young Pioneer Tours, a company known for specialising in low-cost tours of
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...
and
other remote places.
Personal life
Collings was from Auckland, New Zealand.
He graduated from the
University of Auckland
, mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work
, established = 1883; years ago
, endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021)
, budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021)
, chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant
, vice_chancellor = Dawn ...
business school.
[
On 5 March 2020, it was announced that he had recently died of a heart attack at the age of 33.]
Career
Collings became interested in North Korea after watching the 2004 documentary ''A State of Mind
''A State of Mind'' is a 2004 documentary film Film director, directed by Daniel Gordon (film director), Daniel Gordon and produced by Nicholas Bonner.Justin Corfield, ''Historical Dictionary of Pyongyang 2013'', page 16 "Nick Bonner has also b ...
'' about North Korean gymnasts training for the 2003 Pyongyang Arirang Mass Games. He later went on a research tour to the country.[
Collings was an advocate for North Korean tourism.][ He is quoted as saying that North Korea is open to everyone except South Koreans and journalists.] He helped open the Tumen- Namyang border between China and North Korea to foreign tourists.[ He was the first westerner to travel across the Tumen-Namyang border,][ when he led a tour group across the border in 2013.][ In 2012, he launched the Pyongyang Deaf and Blind Centre charity.][
In 2015, Collings confirmed the reopening of the North Korean border after an ]ebola
Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after bec ...
scare.
In the same year, he spoke about North Korean citizens having an ever-increasing choice of food at the Kwangbok Department Store in Pyongyang. In 2017, he was quoted as saying that hemp was as cheap as tobacco in North Korea.
Young Pioneer Tours
In 2008, Collings and Gareth Johnson founded Young Pioneer Tours while living as expatriate
An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
s in China. The company is registered in China, and Collings worked as a managing director. 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. At the time, a trip to North Korea cost about €
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...
2000, but Collings offered trips from €795. Collings believed that engaging people with North Korea could lead to "less mutual distrust in the future."
As well as tours to North Korea, the company includes tours of Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about ...
in Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...
, East Timor
East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-we ...
, and Nauru
Nauru ( or ; na, Naoero), officially the Republic of Nauru ( na, Repubrikin Naoero) and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in Oceania, in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in K ...
in Micronesia
Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...
.[ The organisation also offers short-term study trips to Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, a Chinese-funded language centre.][
In 2017, Young Pioneer Tours were criticised after the death of ]Otto Warmbier
Otto Frederick Warmbier (December 12, 1994 – June 19, 2017) was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 on a charge of subversion. In June 2017, he was released by North Korea in a vegetative state and died ...
, who was on a tour with the company. Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years on a charge of subversion
Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, hierarchy, and social norms. Sub ...
and died in 2017.[ 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.] 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.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collings, Troy
New Zealand businesspeople
Tour guides
1980s births
2020 deaths
Businesspeople from Auckland
New Zealand expatriates in China
Place of death missing
Place of birth missing
University of Auckland alumni