Second operator announces ban on elephant rides
Intrepid Travel has stopped offering trips including elephant rides and visits to all entertainment venues with captive elephants.
The Melbourne-based adventure travel company said the move, taken earlier this year, followed an extensive three-year research process to assess the welfare of captive elephants at entertainment venues in Asia.
The research was conducted by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) with the support of Intrepid Travel, who have worked with the animal charity since 2000.
"Asian elephants are highly endangered and tourism demand has led to venues where elephants are forced to do unnatural performances," it said. "The research concludes that this causes pain and suffering to the elephants, and that the tourism industry has added to the number of elephants being poached from the wild."
UK tour operator STA Travel last week announced that it would no longer offer elephant rides on trips in Thailand.
"We applaud recent moves in the tourism industry to end elephant rides," said Intrepid Travel co-founder Geoff Manchester. "Responsible travel has been central to how we’ve run Intrepid for 25 years and as an industry we can do more to help protect wild animals from cruelty.
"The issues are complex around animals in captivity, which is why Intrepid has been partnered with WSPA for many years, and have been able to tap into their expertise on animal protection.
"Our focus is on educating people, and teaching local communities about animal welfare and environmental conservation.
"While we once included elephant rides or entertainment venue visits, we’re now working with rehabilitation and sanctuary facilities. We hope that the increased patronage to commendable venues like this will help encourage others to lift their standards."
According to Intrepid Travel, the change has been popular with their travellers. "Intrepid Travellers want to know that their travel choices are not causing harm and appreciate learning how elephants are cared for without seeing them do unnatural performances," said Manchester.
WSPA’s Dr Jan Schmidt-Burbach added: "Wild animals belong in the wild – not in entertainment. We welcome all progress within the tourism industry towards recognising this fact and taking action to prevent cruelty.
"Helping people to understand the choices they can make whilst travelling can create positive experiences for them and for the animals that they encounter along the way.
"WSPA urges all tour operators to support animal friendly tourism and to help every customer make animal friendly choices when travelling."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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