'Lessons learnt' from honeymooner's death

The father of a Blenheim woman killed after being struck by a boat in Fiji two years ago says the safety campaign launched after her death has made a difference.

Rebecca Stockwell was on her honeymoon when she received fatal injuries from a propeller while swimming at the Matamanoa Resort in the Mamanuca Islands in November 2007.

Last week, a 47-year-old American tourist died after being struck by a boat while snorkelling at the Qamea Island Resort in Cakaudrove Province, Fiji. The driver of the boat was arrested immediately afterwards.

In Stockwell's case, authorities were slow to act, but the driver was eventually charged and convicted of manslaughter in March this year.

Stockwell's father, Mark Crawley, said he believed the fast and high-profile response from the Fijian authorities to the latest incident "almost certainly is as a result of the impact of Rebecca being killed".

Crawley said it had been reported that an investigation into the Qamea resort's safety measures would be held.

"[It] is a direct indication ... that Fiji is finally starting to hold their resorts accountable for the continuing deaths of their guests at their resorts' own hands," he said.

The Fijian director of public prosecutions said this year that manslaughter charges against the owner of the Matamanoa Resort were being contemplated.

If charges are laid, it would be the first prosecution of its kind in Fiji.

More than 60,000 New Zealanders holiday in Fiji every year, most of whom engage in water-related activities such as swimming and snorkelling.

New Zealand Travel Agents Association chief executive Paul Yeo said operators were becoming increasingly conscious of the need to provide adequate safeguards wherever their clients went on holiday.

"Health and safety is becoming more and more important globally in the travel industry," he said.

Concerns have been evident in New Zealand recently too, with a review of practices in the adventure tourism sector.

It was sparked by a letter to Prime Minister John Key from the father of British woman Emily Jordan, who was killed in a river-boarding accident on the Kawarau River last year.

"He asked the question: are we doing it right? Can we do it better? And I think that's a fair and valid question," Yeo said.

"If you take it the other way around, the Fijian authorities or the authorities in Bali or Thailand or wherever else, if accidents and problems happen there I would think they should take a similar view, casting a careful eye over their own industry."

Resorts carried a degree of moral and legal responsibility, but the overwhelming responsibility was likely to be on the skipper of a boat.

Maritime New Zealand spokesman Ross Henderson said in New Zealand the onus was on skippers to maintain a proper lookout at all times, including maintaining the correct speed.

"It is not for us to comment on what Fijian authorities might do, but skipper responsibility is very much what it is all about here in New Zealand."