Tourism may be a fun activity for humans – but not so much for animals. Animal-centric activities that are popular with travelers, including elephant rides and swimming with dolphin excursions, can actually cause psychological and physical trauma for the animals, according to National Geographic.
Because of that, and because of pressure from animal rights groups, popular travel website TripAdvisor will stop selling tickets to those animal-centric activities by early 2017.
This change is a big deal, considering wildlife tourist attractions account for between 20 and 40 percent of all tourism worldwide. However, tourists can still book those attractions through other portals. And TripAdvisor says it will still keep reviews and other information about those attractions up on its site, along with access to an educational portal about the effects of wildlife tourism.
While it might seem like TripAdvisor is potentially giving up a large selection of potential customers, it could also be beneficial for the company in the long run. Consumers are becoming extremely conscious about issues like this. And if the company waits too long to make a change, it could do damage to its reputation.
Beware the Potential Impact of Consumer Causes
Businesses of all sizes need to be aware of issues like this and consider how they might handle the potential impact of consumer causes, opinions, and behavior going forward. And of course, sometimes making a change like this is simply the right thing for a business to do.
Image: TripAdvisor
Wouldn’t this drive up the prices of animal attractions? After all, they just made it harder for these places to make money. How about those places that just needs to make money to eventually feed the animals?
Yes I’m a bit worried for places that do in fact treat their animals very well but do allow some selfie photos with animals that are not disturbed by the experiences, and rely on the money from that for food and medicine for their animals. It would seem unfair to force them to shut down because of cruel treatment elsewhere.