Young Pioneer Tours

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."

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.

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".

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Wikipedia