Page 52 - WTM Industry Report

World Travel Market 2017 Industry Report
Globally, about 160 tourism companies have so far stopped offering elephant tourism programmes and one-off elephant attractions, according to World Animal Protection (previously known as World Society for the Protection of Animals), which is also putting pressure on cruise lines to think about their shore excursions.
For example, a petition calling on Carnival Cruise Lines to stop featuring Cayman Turtle Centre: Island Wildlife Encounter in the Cayman Islands, was launched this summer.
World Animal Protection said visitors go there for the opportunity to take a ‘turtle sel e’ but are unaware of
the suffering the turtles experience. Instead, the charity wants the farm to operate as a genuine rehabilitation and education centre, where endangered turtles are properly protected.
It seems social media is a double-edged sword when it
comes to animal welfare. Much of the backlash against
animal attractions has been fuelled by online campaigns or
videos going viral of animal mistreatment, yet the growing
trend of posting sel es appears to be driving the suffering and exploitation of wildlife.
In a report released in October 2017, World Animal Protection reported a 292% increase in the number of wildlife sel es posted on Instagram since 2014.
Of these, 40% show ‘bad’ wildlife sel es, ie someone hugging, holding or inappropriately interacting with a wild animal.
The report says people are more likely to post a ‘good’ wildlife sel e when they have been educated or exposed to cruelty behind the scenes. The organisation is talking to Instagram about how it can take action to protect animals on its platform and is asking people to sign a Sel e Code.
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