STA stops selling Pamplona bull-running tours
STA Travel has stopped selling tours to the bull running festival in Pamplona following pressure from animal welfare groups.
The League Against Cruel Sports first appealed to STA to stop supporting the annual bull running event six weeks ago, when the charity discovered it was still selling tours through its travel provider Topdeck Travel.
Topdeck was still selling the tours despite STA being signed up to the ABTA Animal Welfare Guidelines which deem the activity as unacceptable.
STA’s decision comes less than two weeks after the League launched a new action asking supporters to contact STA’s CEO John Constable and make their opposition known.
Over 12,000 people emailed STA and joined a social media campaign targeting the student company.
We commend STA Travel for acting on compassion and ceasing its support of this abhorrent bull running festival. It’s just a shame that it took a public campaign, and that they are still to engage with us directly," said Joe Duckworth, chief executive of the League.
"Bull running and bullfighting are sickeningly cruel and barbaric practices, with no place in a modern society.
"Tourism plays a major role in the continuation of cruel sports and exploitation of animals around the world, and we will continue to remind travel companies of their responsibility to animals in tourism."
STA joins several other travel companies who have already dropped their sponsorship and promotion of the Pamplona festival and bullfighting following persuasion from the charity, including EasyJet, Thomas Cook, Brittany Ferries, Ryanair, and British Airways.
STA issued a statement saying its decision was not due to pressure from animal welfare groups but was part of a wider audit of all tours involving direct or indirect contact with animals.
"To date we have discountinued the sale of the Tiger Temple tour in Thailand, San Fermin Festival tours in Pamplona, and a lion research project in Zambia. We have also replaced all tours which include elephant riding with alternative activities.
"Although there may be some legacy reference material to these products still available, these tours are no longer available for sale through STA Travel."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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