World Animal Protection

House of Travel is proud to have signed World Animal Protection’s elephant-friendly tourism pledge in early 2017. This makes House of Travel the largest New Zealand travel agency to commit not to sell, offer or promote venues or activities involving elephant rides and shows.

Wildlife can be part of the experience of travel, much like food and culture, but it can be hard for tourists to know what is happening to animals at tourist attractions behind closed doors. 

Elephant-friendly tourism at House of Travel

On World Wildlife Day, 3 March 2017, House of Travel signed World Animal Protection’s elephant-friendly tourism pledge, becoming the largest New Zealand travel agency to commit not to sell, offer or promote venues or activities involving elephant rides or shows.

This is our first step in working with World Animal Protection to protect wild animals used in tourism. Going forward, we will continue to work with World Animal Protection to find ways to provide responsible, animal-friendly tourism options for our customers.

Elephant-friendly tourism pledge

House of Travel

• Acknowledges that tourists want to experience wild animals, but often don’t realise that wild animals suffer hidden cruelty in order to perform and interact with people.
• Recognises that elephants in tourist venues are often sourced from the wild, representing an animal welfare and conservation concern.
• Understands that elephants used for entertainment purposes have to undergo a cruel breaking-in process, harsh training, are forced to act unnaturally, and suffer throughout their lives in captivity.

And therefore:

• Commits not to sell, offer or promote venues or activities involving elephant rides and shows. Instead, if offering elephant experiences, commits to offer only those with a high standard of elephant welfare and conservation, with responsible viewing of elephants in wild or semi-wild habitats.
• Commits to proactively communicate this commitment to protect elephants to customers, to encourage elephant friendly tourism.