Should you participate in elephant tourism? Here’s what experts say.

A Spanish tourist was recently gored to death while bathing an elephant in Thailand. Photo / 123rf

An elephant handler in Thailand is under investigation after a Spanish tourist was killed during a bathing activity at a venue advertised as an ethical sanctuary, an officer at the Tourism and Sports Office in Phang Nga province said on Wednesday. The grim incident has again spotlighted the question of how tourists can ethically - and safely - interact with elephants while travelling.

Humans have been interacting with elephants for centuries, said Hannah S Mumby, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Area of Ecology and Biodiversity who has studied human-wildlife interactions and Asian elephants. But regardless of how innocuous a tourism experience appears, she said, “an elephant is always still a wild animal”.

Is elephant tourism ethical?

Trick-performing elephant acts are mostly frowned upon these days, and experiences advertising ethical treatment and conservation efforts have sprung up in their place. But animal welfare organisations often urge against any tourism that involves interacting with wild animals, including bathing and taking photos close to elephants.

The UN Tourism agency, however, does not recommend against tourism that involves interacting with captive wild animals in its Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, despite calls from animals rights groups for it to do so. It advocates, generally, for tourism activities that are “conducted in harmony with the attributes and traditions of the host regions and countries and [with] respect for their laws, practices and customs.”

The appropriateness of engaging with wild animals is a social and cultural conversation that is constantly in flux, Mumby said. The mental and emotional state of an animal is a complex phenomenon that is difficult for scientists to conclusively measure, she added.

Research on the question is mixed. A 2020 review of animal welfare in elephant tourism in Thailand by researchers with Chiang Mai University and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute found that “conclusions that the vast majority of captive elephants are abused often are based on anecdotal evidence and not solid science.”

The authors recommended a variety of best practices for the management of captive elephants, such as limiting high-calorie treats like bananas and sugarcane and providing for sufficient exercise; ensuring the elephants had ample opportunity to be social, including overnight; providing naturalistic housing with limited concrete flooring and walkways; and prioritising adequate pay, training and retention of mahouts - workers responsible for elephants - throughout the industry.

Lead author Pakkanut Bansiddhi, an associate professor of veterinary medicine at Chiang Mai University, said in a video interview that how a particular elephant tourist activity is managed is often more important than the type of activity, even among riding or bathing experiences. But she acknowledged there was a huge variety of welfare standards in the industry and that it is often difficult for tourists to discern which options are better than others.

An official programme to accredit Thai elephant tourism operators based on animal wellbeing is in its infancy, she said.

“Especially in Thailand, we have a very deep tradition and culture between Thai people and the elephant,” she said.

“I think the better way is to promote welfare, educate people and do the science to find out which is the best management and the best activity for the elephant in tourism,” she said, adding that she had seen significant improvements over the past decade in how elephants are treated within tourism.

Other researchers do take a categorically unfavourable view of the industry. A 2023 analysis of elephant tourism led by researchers at the Emergent Disease Foundation, a UK charity, found that “elephant welfare within some sectors of the close contact interactive tourism industry continues to involve significant mistreatment and abuse”. It called for bans of close-contact experiences.

Lead author Clifford Warwick, a biologist, said in an email that while some forms of tourism that involved observing elephants, from vehicles for example, could be acceptable, “bans are required” when it comes to interacting with the animals.

“In my view, any directly interactive tourism is unresolvably problematic,” he said. “The highly concerning animal welfare and public health and safety issues associated with directly interactive [riding, bathing, touching, feeding, close-up photographs] in elephant tourism are unresolvable.”

How to navigate elephant tourism options

Plenty of elephant experiences advertise themselves as ethical but would be unlikely to get the animal-rights-group stamp of approval. Sanctuaries that are considered humane provide homes for rescued animals that can not be released into the wild, in which carefully managed tourism can play a role.

World Animal Protection calls for tourists to “only visit venues where you can look, not touch”. That means no riding, bathing or patting elephants, it says, or visiting any venue where the elephants are behaving in a way they would not behave in the wild. It recommends a list of elephant sanctuaries, including 10 in Thailand.

The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, a nonprofit dedicated to sanctuaries, rescue centres and rehabilitation facilities that administers accreditation, is another place to check out when deciding whether or where you want to see animals while travelling, though it does not list any sanctuaries in Thailand.

The travel site Tripadvisor does not allow most experiences in which tourists come into contact with captive wild animals to be booked through its platform, though they can still be listed and reviewed. Airbnb does not allow bookings of experiences in which guests ride, bathe or feed elephants, and Booking.com has disallowed tours that involve directly interacting with elephants, among other banned animal activities on those sites.

Are elephant experiences safe?

The chances are low that you will be hurt by an elephant as a tourist. But it does happen.

In the January 3 incident in Phang Nga province, a woman accidentally slipped and grabbed on to an elephant’s trunk, startling it, a local tourism official said. The elephant shook out its trunk, which pushed the woman against the edge of the pool, the official said. She died in a hospital. The woman and her boyfriend had been participating in an elephant bathing activity and had been instructed by a tour guide to stand in front of the elephant for a photo, the official said, citing police and tour company reports.

Reports of tourists injured or killed by captive elephants in Asia have made headlines nearly annually in recent years. Viewing elephants in the wild can also be risky: At least two tourists were killed by the animals while on safari in Zambia last year.

There is also a risk of disease transmission between elephants and humans when in close contact, experts warn. The Emergent Disease Foundation-led analysis concluded that “infection and injury risks between humans and captive elephants cannot be safely controlled where close contact experiences are involved”.