Hundreds of animal attractions where tourists come into physical contact with captive wild animals or endangered species will no longer be bookable on TripAdvisor or Viator, the travel website has said.

TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel site announced its commitment to launch a set of industry-leading actions, including changes to its policy on selling tickets to animal attractions on 11th October. It will also launch a new education portal to help inform travellers about the standards of care for wild, captive, and endangered species in tourism.

 

Tickets for specific tourism experiences where travellers come into contact with captive wild animals or endangered species, including but not limited to elephant rides, petting tigers, and swim with dolphin attractions will be discontinued, a press release said.

 

While some attractions will cease booking through TripAdvisor immediately, the company plans to have both the educational portal and booking policy changes fully-launched and implemented by early 2017.

 

TripAdvisor is also committing to the development and launch of an education portal linked to every animal attraction listing on TripAdvisor.

The portal will provide links and information on animal welfare practices, helping travellers to write more informed reviews about their experience, and to be aware of opinions that exist on the conservation implications and benefits of some tourism attractions.

 

In turn, TripAdvisor believes that better reviews will enable travellers to make more informed booking decisions and improve the standards of animal care in tourism worldwide.

 

The content on TripAdvisor’s education portal will provide numerous points of view from experts in the fields of sustainable tourism, animal welfare, wildlife conservation and the zoological and marine sciences.

 

Initial partners include the trade accreditation organization Association of Zoos and Aquariums; the conservation organization Global Wildlife Conservation, Asian Elephant Support and Think Elephants International; tourism experts ABTA — The Travel Association, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Sustainable Travel International and the TreadRight Foundation; 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.

 

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Photo Source: Cee4life