How TripAdvisor Will Do Our Part to Raise the Global Standard of Care for Animals in Tourism

There are thousands of tourist attractions that feature captive animals.  And while some people and organizations are against keeping animals in captivity, there’s a lot of research to support the argument that sometimes captivity is the best viable solution for an animal or an endangered species given the populated world we live in; that there is a benefit to the zoological sciences and the marine sciences; and there are often significant conservation benefits to supporting organizations like zoos, aquariums, safaris and sanctuaries engaged in tourism.

However, there are also many other attractions, where unbeknownst to the visitor, wild or endangered animals are mistreated for entertainment purposes. 

Over the past couple of years, since TripAdvisor purchased the attractions company Viator, we have focused on rapidly expanding the number of attractions which are available to book directly on TripAdvisor. 

As the volume of bookable attractions on TripAdvisor has grown, a number of animal rights advocacy groups have reached out to us with concerns about the treatment of wild animals at certain attractions around the world. They highlighted elephant rides as an example of an industry where the animals involved are often subjected to a life of cruelty, and they urged us to do more to oppose attractions where such acts of cruelty were being used to make a profit. 

They raised some very important points, and it made us realize that there was more we could and should be doing as a business to promote better animal welfare standards in our industry.

Indeed, when we researched the subject in more detail we found it hard to justify the fact that, in addition to elephant rides, some attractions had minimal educational, scientific or conservation value beyond their entertainment experience. 

So we wanted to find a solution that, on the one hand, would encourage attractions with poor animal welfare standards to improve their practices across the industry globally, and on the other hand would not cause unintended harm to animal conservation groups and organizations which rely on tourism to support their efforts.

For a decision like this, it was clear that we needed to consult a range of global experts in animal welfare, wildlife conservation, sustainable tourism and experts in the zoological and marine sciences. We heard lots of different viewpoints and identified lots of challenges. All of which helped us identify a clear role for TripAdvisor to help drive improvements in animal welfare standards across the tourism industry.

By early 2017, TripAdvisor and Viator will be making two important changes as a business.

Firstly, TripAdvisor and Viator will no longer sell tickets to attractions where tourists come into physical contact with captive wild animals or endangered species. That includes, but isn’t limited to, elephant ride, “swim with” programs where tourists can touch or ride on dolphins, or attractions where someone can pet captive wild animals or endangered species, such as a tiger petting zoo.

There are a few exceptions we will still sell, such as feeding programs at some zoos used for education purposes where tourists are under the supervision of zoo and or wildlife officials, and we have put an appeals process in place allowing suppliers to provide proof that they operate in accordance with our policy if we wrongly stopped selling tickets to them.

Secondly, we are also creating a consumer education portal to provide travelers with easy access to information and guidance about recommended animal welfare standards, help travelers to write more informed reviews about their experience, and to be aware of opinions that exist on the conservation implications and benefits of some animal attractions.

Some groups wanted TripAdvisor to delist non-bookable animal attractions that they felt may be mistreating animals, but there are downsides to restricting our travelers right to write about their travel experiences – good or bad. Fundamentally, we believe in the benefit of sharing these experiences. Ultimately, we think our community is better served by more informed reviews, and that is why we see consumer education as a key component in the drive to improve standards.  

A number of groups we worked with have partnered with us to provide content to the portal and I want to thank them all. To start, they include the trade accreditation organization Association of Zoos and Aquariums; the conservation organizations Global Wildlife Conservation, Asian Elephant Support, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Think Elephants International and The TreadRight Foundation; tourism experts ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) and Sustainable Travel International; academic leaders in the sciences of animal conservation and animal welfare like Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and animal welfare groups including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and World Animal Protection. Thank you also the the United Nations World Tourism Organization for their endorsement of our efforts, and to tourism groups like the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) for their role during the advisory process of our research into this issue. These groups all do important work with the best interest of animals at heart in the area of education, science and conservation. And I want to call out the importance of having both industry and advocacy groups join together to help raise the standard of care for animals in tourism worldwide.

We know that these actions alone won’t improve standards overnight, but our hope is that by helping travelers make more informed choices, and by making it clear which types of attractions we are prepared to sell tickets for, it will encourage attractions to adopt the highest possible standards of animal care. We know from experience that the travel community can be the greatest agents for change within the industry. We hope the steps we’ve started taking today can mean that we can soon add animal welfare to that list as well.