Global Spirit - Animals in Tourism Specialists

Global Spirit ‘Animals in Tourism’ specialists, was established with a view to increasing tour operator engagement with the complex topic of animal welfare, ensuring its inclusion in overall CSR objectives and securing its... [ view full abstract ]

Global Spirit ‘Animals in Tourism’ specialists, was established with a view to increasing tour operator engagement with the complex topic of animal welfare, ensuring its inclusion in overall CSR objectives and securing its place higher up the corporate agenda. We focus on helping tour operators to bridge the gap between animal welfare science and the practical application of minimum requirements and best practice contained within the ABTA Global Welfare Guidance Documents for Animals in Tourism (2013) across their destination programmes.

Global Spirit’s partners have combined backgrounds in sustainability, tour operating and business, and have first-hand experience of the complexities surrounding the positive and negative impacts of tourism upon animal welfare, local livelihoods and tourism experiences. Our well-established relationships with species experts, welfare organisations, alternative activity providers and the UK and European travel industry together with our neutral and impartial approach makes us attractive to suppliers and operators and has positioned us as the go-to people for practical support.

Improving standards in captive, interactive and wildlife viewing attractions across the world is our main focus, but for this to be successful it is crucial that local livelihoods, customer experiences and commercial impacts are considered in equal measure if tour operators are to be fully engaged and use their leverage as a force for good.

Based on captive animal audits in a number of destinations, ranging from Mexico to Asia, in this presentation we paint a detailed picture of the collaborative efforts that are needed to create positive change, the challenges for tour operators in terms of revenue, profits and campaign activity, the expectation of tourists to see exotic animals at their convenience and the pressure on suppliers to please an ever varied market.Through our work we aim to achieve worldwide positive changes to the use of animals in tourism that guarantee improved standards, better customer experiences, vibrant local economies and provide a sound investment in the future of tourism businesses.