Adventure World MD on animal friendly travel: We’re all in this together
Animal welfare might not be something we generally think of when planning our overseas trips.
But with the rise of ethical and sustainable travel, it’s something more and more travel companies are looking at.
And they want agents and consumers to start taking up the cause too.
See also: WA’s bid to boost tourism could risk harming quokkas
One such travel company, The Travel Corporation (TTC), has recently partnered with World Animal Protection (WAP) after almost five years of working with them to ensure their programs are animal-friendly.
We had a chat with Neil Rodgers, managing director of Adventure World Travel, to find out what TTC and it’s 30 global brands are doing to improve the lives of animals through profitable and sustainable tourism.
WAP has worked with TTC since 2014 to reshape their travel experiences and make them more animal-friendly, phasing out cruel activities like bullfights, captive whale and dolphin attractions and, most significantly, removing elephant rides and shows from trips visiting Thailand.
Rodgers told us their partnership is now moving forward to help educate the industry.
“Back in the day, we worked with WAP because they had activists on the ground,” Rodgers told us.
“We could send them to check out our products and get their endorsement, so we kind of use them as an authority to vet our entire program.”
“The next thing is agent education and consumer awareness.”
“Most of our client base, besides the likes of Contiki, is the baby boomer bucket list age group and this is still quite new to them.”
“They might ask questions like ‘What’s wrong with riding an elephant, it’s a strong sturdy animal?’ But they don’t know the conditions the animal is kept in.”
According to Rodgers, TTC has been leading the way in animal welfare in the travel industry, but there are two other companies he says have also been heavily involved.
“It’s not often I mention competitors but any time I’ve had a world animal protection meeting there’s The Intrepid Travel Group, there’s TTC and there’s World Expeditions.”
“And I would say these three groups have really lead the way in Australia and NZ in animal welfare in travel.”
He said it’s simple things like educating consumers about the dangers of animal selfies in the Amazon, or elephant riding in Thailand and India that agents need to get behind.
“It’s the agents that we’re targetting now.”
“We’ve removed the product now agents need to have the confidence to make sure they’re not selling it through anyone else and they’re educating the travellers on responsible tourism.”
“WE ARE ALL ACCOUNTABLE AND NEED TO LEARN AS MUCH ABOUT DESTINATIONS AS WE CAN, SUCH AS AFRICA. WE HAVE TO GO A STEP FURTHER AND EDUCATE OURSELVES, OUR TEAM AND OUR CLIENTS ABOUT THINGS SUCH AS LION WALKING SAFARIS.“
“So agents need to look at the assets we’ve all put out there and make themselves aware of it.”
“Consumers really do care about it.”
Rodgers said that while it may be good for agent profits, it wasn’t always good for TTC’s bottom line.
“It really wasn’t a commercial decision for us.”
“These are popular programs we’ve taken a stand on because it’s just the right thing to do.”
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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