Despite Expedia claiming to have dropped the promotion of live dolphin and whale exhibitions they are still promoting and selling tickets to Barcelo Grand Maya Resort in Cancun which has a dolphinarium on site for hotel guests. Included in the price of a ticket to stay at Barcelo hotel is a free dolphin show for guests every morning. On top of this, Barcelo guests can swim with the dolphins at an extra cost. Barcelo hotel states that their dolphin tank is exclusively for their guests.
The Barcelo dolphin tank is tiny and shallow and provides no shade for the dolphins to escape the hot sun. Recently a video was shared of dolphin jumping from the Barcelo tank and due to the tank being so high the dolphin missed the edge of the tank and landed with great impact on the concrete. We believe this dolphin is dead.
Prior to the video surfacing we had written to Expedia a number of times to highlight our concerns about this dolphinarium. Expedia just ignored us. Now the video has surfaced will Expedia take our concerns seriously? On top of this, by promoting Barcelo Grand Maya Resort, Expedia are breaking their own animal welfare policy. By promoting Barcelo Grand Maya Resort Expedia continue to profit from dolphin captivity.
Expedia customers believe that Expedia has nothing to do with establishments that confine dolphins anymore but sadly this simply is not the case. We believe that Expedia are misleading their customers and if they really do care about the suffering of captive dolphins then they absolutely need to stop promoting the Barcelo Grand Maya Resort in Cancun.
