Elephant Safaris are a major part of Sri Lanka’s eco tourism industry, but are they all as responsible as they claim to be?
Elephant Safaris are a major part of Sri Lanka’s eco tourism industry, but are they all as responsible as they claim to be?
August 12 is World Elephant Day, a day designed to bring attention to the plight of the Asian and African elephant and the numerous threats they face, and raise awareness of how close we are to losing these magnificent creatures to extinction forever. Although travel and tourism has the potential to play a huge role in conservation efforts, unfortunately it still also plays a huge role in the negative impact on the elephant population and it is up to us as travellers to make sure that we play our part in having a positive impact instead.
Elephant trekking is a popular tourist activity in Thailand, one of the more popular ‘bucket list’ activities in the gap year industry in fact, but there are many reasons why riding an elephant is irresponsible and wrong, and why you should scratch riding an elephant off that list immediately.