Troy Collings, Managing Director of the North Korea-focused travel company Young Pioneer Tours (YPT), passed away last week aged 33.

He died suddenly from a heart attack, his colleagues told NK News.

“It is with much sadness that we announce the death of Troy Michael Collings,” a statement provided by YPT said.

“Troy co-founded Young Pioneer Tours in 2008 creating the first budget tour company to travel to North Korea and worked full time as Managing Director responsible for North Korea tours up to his death.”

Collings, a native of Auckland, New Zealand, co-founded YPT after hearing from a friend about an idea to set up a company specializing in tours to North Korea.

“It sounded fantastic, in the true sense of the word, but I had always been fascinated with the country since I’d seen A State of Mind many years ago,” said Collings in an interview about the history of the firm in 2018.

After subsequently visiting the North on a research trip, Collings said he realized Pyongyang was serious about tourism and concluded that bringing in foreigners could even be a win-win.

“I saw the potential tourism had to help the locals and to influence the country’s development,” Collings said.

“More importantly, I made some real human connections with people I met that had a profound effect on me and I decided during that trip that this is what I wanted to dedicate my life to.”

Over the next several years, Collings worked tirelessly with his colleagues to build the firm’s presence on the international market from scratch.

The original goal? To make visiting North Korea more affordable.

During the early 2000s, weeklong trips to the DPRK were relatively costly – ranging from between 1,400 to 2,000 euros per person.

But the YPT team believed there might be unmet demand from younger people with less disposable income to visit North Korea.

And so YPT pioneered a low-cost model, introducing tours to North Korea in 2008 that started from as little as 795 euros per person.

The new approach quickly made an impact, making the country more accessible to younger visitors, including this author, whose first visit to the North was as a 25-year old with YPT in 2009.

As YPT gained a foothold in the market, the increasing revenues enabled Collings and his colleagues to get creative.

“We focused on developing new tours in North Korea, such as our Pyongyang City Cycling Tour, our North Korea Study Tours and the overland crossing from Tumen to Namyang in the North East of the country,” Collings said in his 2018 interview.

And with that effort came recognition.

In 2014, TripAdvisor would award YPT a “Certificate of Excellence” for the positive feedback left by its customers – recognition that has recurred annually ever since – an achievement Collings said he was particularly proud of.

“For me, it sums up all the moments along the road big and small in one package,” he said.

“I was (and still am) very proud of everyone who’s helped us make that happen – our great staff both former and current, our fantastic customers and our excellent partners around the world.”

Like many of his industry peers, Collings said his repeated interactions with DPRK citizens helped him realize that “once you scratch the surface most North Koreans aren’t that different from anyone else.”

“They have a range of personalities and attitudes and many share the same goals and ambitions we do.”

And recognizing the importance of the people of North Korea, Collings said that helping its citizens would be an important future goal of the company.

“Over the next ten years we want to make the most of the position we’ve formed in North Korea to expand on our charity work,” he said.

“(Work) such as our partnership with the Pyongyang Center for the Deaf and Blind, our sponsorship of local co-operative farms and disaster relief assistance when necessary, like during the floods that wreaked havoc in North Hamgyong in 2016.”

Friends and colleagues said Collings made a big impact in the North Korea travel industry and said they would miss him dearly.

“Troy was always enthusiastic about expanding tourism in North Korea outside of the focus on Pyongyang and especially in the previously inaccessible province of North Hamgyong in the northeast, one of the poorest provinces in the country,” said YPT in an official statement about his work.

“In November 2012, Troy successfully opened the Tumen-Namyang border crossing between China and North Korea to foreign tourists and was the first western tourist to cross the border, leading the first western group in April 2013, an achievement he took personal pride in.”

“Troy, with his passion for tailor-made Korean suits and his ability to be the smartest-looking guy whoever he was with, will be extremely sadly missed by family, friends and colleagues alike.”

Simon Cockerell, General Manager at Koryo Tours, said that “Troy was someone well respected and admired by both the Koreans in the travel industry and staff of other travel companies working in the field.”

“A sensible and intelligent voice on DPRK issues and someone you could trust to have a chat with and get a well considered viewpoint from both in-country and outside too,” Cockerell continued. “He’ll be greatly missed by everyone in this industry who knew him, and of course by his North Korean colleagues and friends.”

His colleague Rowan Beard – a Tour Manager at YPT – said: “Troy had a significant impact on my life.”

“I’ve lost a best friend and an inspirational business partner. He will be sorely missed by everyone here at YPT and by his close friends and partners in the DPRK.”