World Tourism Day - Elephant tourism

To be in the presence of an elephant is an amazing experience. Their sheer size can? overwhelm you, their gentle social nature leaving you with a sense of calm and fulfilment that life can and should be friendly and peaceful.?

Yet it is this generally calm, good natured temperament which we have all too often chosen to exploit. To the elephants, and to our detriment we have learnt that if we physically and psychologically abuse these gentle giants we can force them into situations which we convince ourselves are amusing and entertaining.

Little more so than the myriad of elephant tourism opportunities which exist for travellers visiting many South-East Asian destinations.?

What could be more ‘natural’ than spending a few hours in the company of an elephant, exercising and bathing them. After all, in many cases these elephants have been ‘rescued’ from a life of hard labour in logging camps. But often all is not as it may seem.?

Many thousands of elephants in tourism camps across Asia are being used for close contact interactions including riding, bathing and hands-on photo opportunities. Whilst these activities may appear to be fun and elephant handlers may suggest their elephants participate voluntarily, there is nothing amusing for the elephants.?

Throughout your experience, you will be in the caring hands of an elephant handler, a person that understands their elephant like no other. Yet this person has the responsibility to keep you safe during your ‘experience’ and when up close and personal with a 3-4000kg animal that has the ability to flatten you with a simple push of a trunk, your elephant handler must be in control of their elephant's behaviour.?

To keep such control they are likely to have a sharpened tool or a hook to ‘guide’ your elephant into the places and positions that you desire. These tools are used in some situations to mete out physical punishment. No matter how gently they may be used in your presence, at some point it had to be established as a negative reinforcer in order to be effective. That means causing enough pain and discomfort that the animal remembers, and seeks to avoid that experience by complying in the future. A smaller handheld ‘jab-stick’ may also be used to jab the elephant in sensitive places such as behind the ears, to ensure it complies with ‘your wishes’.

The use of these tools remove an elephant’s choice and control over its immediate environment and actions, forcing it to comply with the wishes of the handler regardless of whether or not the action it is being asked to perform is in their best interest. Many elephants at tourism camps also spend long periods of time isolated and chained, often forced to stand on hard surfaces and provided with little access to water or shade during their hot working hours.?

To make matters worse, some are forced to endure the indignity and in many cases physical pain of being made to perform circus tricks. Elephants standing on their heads, spinning in circles whilst standing on one leg, and walking on top of rolling barrels confirms our place as the tricksters and manipulators, whilst the animals themselves endure their pain and indignity time after time to prevent them from receiving further physical punishments.

Elephants in such poorly managed tourism camps may be suffering physically and mentally as they are deprived of the ability to perform their wide repertoire of natural behaviours. Most importantly, they are deprived of choice: choice of social encounters, activity, cognitive engagement, foods, resting times and places. All of the things that a wild elephant occupies themselves with each day is denied and replaced by human-mandated activities.?

Now when you consider this from the elephant’s point of view, suddenly it does not seem quite so attractive. For many of these elephants, they started their lives in the wild with their family herds, only to be ripped away by human hands, beaten into submission, and forced into a life of abject misery on a logging or a tourist camp. Others have had the misfortune to have been born into this life, being subjected to our ‘abusive games’ from birth.

If you truly love and respect elephants, do not ride them, do not pose for your photograph with them, and do not pay to see them perform circus tricks.?

Thankfully, there are many places which have truly ‘rescued’ elephants from their lives of misery, places that allow elephants to be elephants in the company of each other and do not force them to do tricks or provide us with rides and ‘close contact experiences’. These are the places that provide true sanctuary.

Ethical elephant tourism programmes ensure elephants are managed in a manner conducive to their psychological needs; allowing them to function where possible as elephants would do in the wild and to spend as much time as practically possible free from direct human intervention.

Animals Asia partners with Yok Don National Park in Vietnam to provide such an ethical elephant experience and our elephants spend their day roaming in the forest foraging, resting, sleeping and interacting with each other whilst tourists follow and observe from a safe and respectful distance as they go about their day.

Our elephants are presented with choice as to how they wish to occupy their time and this is resulting in healthier, happier elephants that are allowed to express themselves and their natural behaviours in ways that were previously not possible.? Take Kham Phanh for example, Kham Phanh had spent over 40 years isolated, working each day providing rides for tourists. In partnership with Yok Don National Park and the Elephant Conservation Centre, we secured her freedom in 2021 and moved her into the Yok Don forest where she has since been introduced to one of our older and gentle elephants, H’Blu. These two are now inseparable and Kham Phanh likes nothing more than to spend her days splashing about in the water and squeaking her delight towards her friend, H’Blu and all of our other rescued elephants to hear.

Our ethical elephant tourism programme transforms elephants lives and I am pleased to say that we are not alone in this endeavour, with organisations and tour operators across the region transitioning elephant tourism from the ‘elephant interaction and riding’ model to the ‘ethical hands-off’ model allowing elephants to truly be themselves and for us to be the observers of these truly gentle giants in their natural environment.

As travel opportunities continue to improve following a number of very tough years, tour operators and facilities with truly ethical elephant experiences need our support more than ever before. Please support elephant tourism and the livelihoods of those that rely upon it but be sure that you are supporting a truly ethical tourism experience, one in which the elephants are really allowed to be elephants.

Written by Dave Neale , Global Animal Sentience & Welfare Director, Animals Asia