Demand Expedia Stop Booking Attractions That Harm Animals
- by: Susan Bird / Care2 Causes
- recipient: Dara Khosrowshahi – Expedia CEO and President; Robert Dzielak - Expedia Executive Vice President
On October 12, 2016, travel website TripAdvisor announced a major change to how it tickets wildlife tourism trips and animal-related attractions. TripAdvisor and its Viator ticketing service will discontinue selling tickets for specific tourism experiences where travelers come into physical contact with captive wild animals or endangered species, including but not limited to elephant rides, petting tigers, and swimming with dolphin attractions.
In addition, TripAdvisor will develop and establish an education portal linked to every animal attraction listing on TripAdvisor. The portal will provide links and information on animal welfare practices. It will provide numerous points of view from experts in the fields of sustainable tourism, animal welfare, wildlife conservation and the zoological and marine sciences.
Among the experts providing this input for the site will be the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Global Wildlife Conservation, Asian Elephant Support and Think Elephants International, ABTA – The Travel Association, Pacific Asia Travel Association, Sustainable Travel International and the TreadRight Foundation, Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and World Animal Protection.
To encourage another major travel site to follow TripAdvisor's lead, please sign this petition. It asks Expedia to change its animal welfare booking policies to match or exceed those of TripAdvisor.
Dear Mr. Khosrowshahi and Mr. Dzielak:
Those who have signed this petition, like many other members of the public, were very pleased recently to learn that your competitor, TripAdvisor, has instituted a new policy for booking animal-related travel. TripAdvisor will discontinue selling tickets for specific tourism experiences where travelers come into physical contact with captive wild animals or endangered species, including but not limited to elephant rides, petting tigers, and swimming with dolphin attractions.
Expedia should do likewise as soon as possible. The time has come to refuse to send business to events that make a profit from the use and abuse of captive wild animals and endangered species.
Please review the Expedia policies with an eye toward making the same changes TripAdvisor just made. Those of us who care about how animals are treated will take our business to the travel web sites that adhere most closely to the policies we are fighting for -- policies that refrain from supporting entertainment and travel destinations that exploit and harm animals.
We thank you for giving this matter the attention it deserves.
