Travel companies taking a stand against cruel wildlife entertainment
Hear from travel experts at G Adventures (a global travel company we’ve been working with) about how they are promoting humane wildlife tourism
“The more we talk about seeing animals in the wild, the more demand to see animals in captivity performing for tourists will go down” – Emily Mikus, Product Manager, G Adventures.
Cruelty to animals in the wildlife tourism industry is a huge problem, affecting approximately 550,000 wild animals. These are the animals we are fighting to protect through our Wildlife Not Entertainers campaign.
In this fight, travel companies have proven themselves to be pivotal. They can educate their travellers, and work only with the highest-welfare venues.
Our wildlife experts sat down with travel pros from G Adventures at their global headquarters in Toronto to talk about the wildlife tourism problem, and how travel companies like G Adventures are helping to promote humane alternatives.
150,000 travellers go on tour with G Adventures every year – that’s a powerful voice to have on our side speaking up for animals.
By working together, our voice becomes stronger to spread awareness about the problem, urge wildlife tourism venues to adopt high-welfare standards for their animals, and break the cycle of cruelty.
“When people know the truth about the cruelty, they don’t want to do it” – Kate Nustedt, Director of Wildlife, World Animal Protection.
Related: Our global study exposes the scale and extent of animal cruelty in wildlife tourism
Proving demand for humane wildlife tourism
People love animals, and that is one of the top reasons why wildlife attractions are so popular. Travel companies like G Adventures are often the first point of contact between travellers and their destinations and they can be an incredible force to promote humane wildlife tourism.
“We want to provide those experiences where people can see animals in their natural habitat” – Kelly Galaski, Program & Operations Manager, Americas & Euroe at Planeterra Foundation, G Adventures’ non-profit partner.
After auditing all of their animal experiences such as elephant rides, G Adventures found that their travellers didn’t miss the low-welfare attractions that were no longer offered.
“The more we talk about seeing animals in the wild, the more demand to see animals in captivity performing for tourists will go down” – Emily Mikus, Product Manager, G Adventures.
Let’s make sure that future wildlife are as wild and majestic as they are today.
Join the movement for an elephant-friendly future
Right now, we are working with travel companies like G Adventures to make a big push for an elephant-friendly future, and you can help.
Take the elephant-friendly pledge and we’ll use your voice to prove that there's a high demand for elephant-friendly experiences.
Take the elephant-friendly pledge
Remember, if you can ride it, hug it or have a selfie with a wild animal, then the chances are it is cruel and the animal is suffering, don’t go.
Read our new interactive report on the welfare of elephants used for tourism in Asia
