In a bid to appeal to more mindful travellers, Airbnb has partnered with World Animal Protection to launch ethical animal-focused experiences. Amid a growing awareness around animal welfare and exploitation in the tourism industry, people are seeking out responsible trips. We explore the insights behind the rise in ethical tourism, and why people are wanting to travel with a clean conscience.
Airbnb’s experiences will now include an animals section, featuring everything from stand-up paddleboarding with a corgi to hiking with goats. The experiences have to meet certain criteria set by World Animal Protection, including the exclusion of wild animals from tours and a requirement that captive animals have sufficient space and freedom from distress. These criteria were created to give travellers the confidence to book knowing that animals are being treated well. “We know that life's better with animals and that people want to connect with them,” says Mikel Freeman, head of animals at Airbnb. “We want to give them a way to do it responsibly. And we want to champion the people who are stewards of animals and their welfare.”
Travel habits are shifting as people become increasingly concerned about the environmental and social consequences of holidays. Animal tourism offers once-in-a-lifetime experiences, appealing to the 60% of global travellers who say they prize experiences more than possessions. According to World Animal Protection, up to 110 million people visit wildlife tourist attractions that involve cruelty each year – but most are unaware that animals are being abused.
A rise in knowledge and awareness around these issues mean that consumers are more attentive to the choices they make while on holiday and safe to say that call-out culture online may play a part in people trying to avoid becoming the stereotype of the “naive traveller”. Films like Blackfish brought the ethics of captive whales to the public’s attention in 2013, and now Tripadvisor has tapped into demands to put a stop to unethical animal tourism by ending its relationship with places that breed or import captive whales and dolphins. In fact, animal welfare is now top of many traveller’s concerns and 71% of people would be more likely to buy from a travel company that cares for animals properly. In this space, other brands have an opportunity to make ethical travel choices easier for consumers.
Isabel Evans is a junior behavioural analyst at Canvas8. Fascinated by how and why people do things, she has an MSc in cognitive and decision sciences from UCL. You can often find her drinking endless coffees, running around Regent’s Park, or delving into a book.
