Troy Collings

Troy Collings (1986/87 - March 2020) was a New Zealand businessman and tour guide. In 2008, he co-founded Young Pioneer Tours, a company known for specialising in tours of North Korea and other remote places.

Personal life

Collings was from Auckland, New Zealand.^[1][2] He graduated from the University of Auckland business school.^[1]

Career

Collings became interested in North Korea after watching the 2004 documentary A State of Mind about North Korean gymnasts training for the 2004 Summer Olympics.^[1][3] He later went on a research tour to the country.^[2]
Collings and Gareth Johnson founded Young Pioneer Tours in 2008.^[1][3] 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.^[3][4] At the time, a trip to North Korea cost about 2000€, but Collings offered trips from 795€.^[5]
The company is registered in China,^[6] and Collings worked as a managing director.^[7] As well as tours to North Korea, the company includes tours of Chernobyl, Ukraine, East Timor and Nauru in Micronesia.^[1][3] The organisation also offers short term study trips to Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, a Chinese-funded language centre.^[7]
Collings was an advocate for North Korean tourism.^[3] He helped open the Tumen-Namyang border between China and North Korea to foreign tourists.^[2] He was the first westerner to travel across the Tumen-Namyang border,^[2] when he led a tour group across the border in 2013.^[5] In 2012, he launched the Pyongyang Deaf and Blind Center charity.^[5]
In 2017, Young Pioneer Tours were criticised after the death of Otto Warmbier, who was on a tour with the company. Warmbier was imprisoned for 15 years on a charge of subversion and died in 2017.^[1] 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.^[8]

Death

Collings died in March 2020 of a heart attack.^[1][3][2]



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