Plea to boycott Thai ‘tiger selfie tours’
One of the country’s larger travel firms has pledged to have nothing to do with ‘‘tiger tourism’’, after its staff offered holidays to Thai resorts where the wild animals are kept for tourists’ entertainment.
Wildlife charity World Animal Protection is calling on tour operators to boycott resorts where tigers are kept in ‘‘unnatural conditions’’ so visitors can pose with them for selfies.
A new report says more than than 830 tigers are kept at 17 major resorts, where they are often beaten, starved and housed in small concrete cages.
No New Zealand tour operator is known to actively promote such tours. When approached yesterday, staff at Flight Centre and House of Travel, in Newmarket, Auckland said they could book the tours but would not recommend them because of cruelty concerns.
However, staff at YOU Travel said there were many elephant or tiger venues and they could organise any tour required. Animal welfare was not mentioned.
Elaine McNee, of World Animal Protection, said ‘‘tiger tourism’’ was a growing problem. ‘‘What we need is travellers and travel companies to be part of the solution and not actively sell or promote these tours,’’ she said.
John Willson, general manager for First Travel Ltd, which owns YOU Travel, said the company did not endorse ‘‘tiger tourism’’.
‘‘YOU Travel has no interest in promoting tiger travel or any form of travel which involves any form of cruelty to animals as indicated by World Animal Protection. We fully support them and will abide by their request.
‘‘Any member of YOU Travel that has said they can book these tours has done so in error, and any branch that we find has done so, we will point out their error.’’