Young Pioneer Tours is an independent travel company based in Xi'an, China, which specialises in budget group and independent tours to North Korea, as well as other destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. The company was founded in 2008 by British expat Gareth Johnson. Its motto is "providing budget travel to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from."
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History
Founded in 2008 by British expat Gareth Johnson, the company caters in particular for the adventurous traveler on a budget. Its motto is "providing budget travel to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from", referring to the fact that at present all foreign tourists in North Korea must be accompanied by a guide.
More recently it has branched out to international travel, developing on the theme of 'tours to places your mother wants you to stay away from' to include other politically tense or off-the-beaten-track destinations such as Iran, Iraq, Eastern Europe and Russia (Eurasia), Armenia, Antarctica, Cuba, Burma, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
Otto Warmbier incident
On January 2, 2016, Otto Warmbier, an American student traveling on a tour organized by the company, was detained by the North Korean government and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly attempting to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel in Pyongyang. Following his release on June 13, 2017, Warmbier's parents stated, "Otto has left North Korea. He is on Medivac flight on his way home. Sadly, he is in a coma and we have been told he has been in that condition since March of 2016. We learned of this only one week ago." North Korea told the State Department that Warmbier contracted botulism (while in custody) and "slipped into a coma after taking a sleeping pill".
According to the information provided at a press conference by some of the medical staff who evaluated Warmbier's health upon his arrival back in the US, he did not contract botulism but suffered an extensive neurological injury. That injury was likely caused by his breathing stopping for a few minutes, thus temporarily preventing his blood from taking oxygen to his central nervous system. This resulted in cell death in a substantial amount of tissue in his central nervous system.
One of the medical staff present at the press conference stated that Warmbier's neurological condition could be best described as unresponsive wakefulness. The same medical staff stated that Warmbier showed no sign of understanding language, responding to verbal commands or awareness of his surroundings. Otto Warmbier died on June 19, 2017.
In a statement emailed to USA Today later that day, the company announced that despite there having been no previous detainments, the company was no longer going to take Americans into North Korea.
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Tours
Group tours to North Korea are accompanied by a Western guide and two Korean guides. Independent tours are accompanied by Korean guides only. Tour locations include Pyongyang, Nampo, Chongjin, Hamhung, the Rason Special Economic Zone, and the Korean Demilitarized Zone, where the country is separated from South Korea.
Young Pioneer Tours have been at the forefront of tourism development in the DPRK, being the first company to organise scuba diving tours, parkour tours, fishing tours, and Juche study tours.
YPT have gradually increased their range of destinations outside of North Korea, including tours to Somaliland, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Kazahkstan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iran, Belarus, Georgia, Chernobyl and South Ossetia
Media
The company has courted both positive and negative press for its tours to North Korea, which range from cultural and sporting trips to pub crawls for St Patrick's Day and New Year's Eve. It has featured on numerous mainstream news sites such as CNN, ABC News, the BBC, Reuters, and The Guardian.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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