Security in a campaign includes an extensive complex of works and activities in the overall system of the organization, preparation and conduct of hikes, trips, competitions. These include:
- Physical, tactical, technical and special training of participants and tour leaders;
- Exploration, development and equipment tour. routes, as well as venues for competitions and trainings;
- Logistics and medical support of tourist groups;
- Organization of tours, consultations, checks and controls;
- providing (if necessary) operational assistance, search and rescue work, etc.
The need for and effectiveness of those or other measures to ensure safety are determined in each individual case, taking into account the characteristics of tourism, the specific situation along the route and the statistics of accidents with tourists.
Analysis of accidents shows that the vast majority of them are the consequence of a number of causes (factors), which can be divided into 4 groups.
The first group of factors reducing safety include:
- The natural features of the region where the route of the hike passes (i.e. height above sea level, thin air, high levels of solar radiation, etc.);
- difficult terrain, full of natural obstacles (very rugged terrain, steep slopes, ice, rockslides, rockfalls, snow avalanches, stormy mountain rivers, rapids, blockages, etc.);
- unfavorable hydrometeorological conditions (sharp fluctuations in air temperature and atmospheric pressure, heavy rains, thunderstorms, snowfalls, ice, dust storms, etc.);
- poor visibility (night, dense twilight, fog, snowfall, rain);
- dangerous predatory animals, poisonous insects and plants, difficult to pass thickets.
The second group of reasons associated with the shortcomings of logistics tourists:
- shortage of tour. equipment and its low quality; discrepancy of equipment, food, medicines and repair kit to specific travel conditions, the planned route, the complexity of obstacles;
- lack of necessary rescue and protective equipment;
- improper use of equipment or loss of it on the route, etc.
The third group of reasons associated with the imperfection of the organization of planned and amateur tourism:
- weak training of tourist public personnel, insufficient work on prevention of accidents;
- insufficient arrangement of routes (no markings, shelters, not prepared for bivouacs, etc.), the shortage of maps, route descriptions and other information materials;
- unsatisfactory medical control over the health of tourists;
- weak control over the preparation of tourists to hike rescue service to violations of the route (unreasonable deviations from the planned route, changes in stopping time, etc.) and non-compliance with safety standards;
- unformed (so called wild) complex hikes of unprepared people, low level of culture of tourists.
The fourth, most extensive group of reasons are caused by medical illiteracy, lack of experience and tactical and technical training, disorganization and undisciplined tourists themselves. Inadmissible, for example, participation in hikes and other tourist activities of people suffering from acute diseases or have recently suffered from them, as well as those for whom their health is generally contraindicated.