Performances and attractions featuring live dolphins have been banned from the travel website Expedia. Photo / Dusan Veverkolog, Unsplash
Performances and attractions featuring live dolphins have been banned from the travel website Expedia. Photo / Dusan Veverkolog, Unsplash
The travel website Expedia has said it has stopped selling holidays that feature performances by captive dolphins or whales.
The company announced the update to its animal welfare policies yesterday, to say that "performances by or interactions with dolphins and other cetaceans will no longer be available on our sites"
On the website the company further clarified that there would be an exception for "accredited" companies offering dolphin experiences, providing they did not offer performances or interactions and were based in "seaside sanctuaries that provide captive animals with a permanent seaside living environment".
We recently adjusted our animal welfare policy. As a result, attractions and activities that involve performances by or interactions with dolphins and other cetaceans will no longer be available on our sites. Learn more: https://t.co/8MIDMkZGMT
"Travel companies play a huge role in driving captive dolphin entertainment and as one of the largest travel companies in the world we are delighted that Expedia Group are making a stand," said a spokesperson for the WAP. "It's time for other travel giants … to do the right thing and follow suit."
We recently adjusted our animal welfare policy. As a result, attractions and activities that involve performances by or interactions with dolphins and other cetaceans will no longer be available on our sites. Learn more: https://t.co/8MIDMkZGMT
Travel companies featuring animal attractions would have 30 days to comply with the new policies or be removed from the site, starting from next year.
A captive dolphin at Sea Life Park in Hawaii, 2012. Photo / Jo-Anne McArthur, Unsplash
Expedia said it would also ban the sale of travel products that "allow intentional physical contact with wild and exotic animals, which include but are not limited to dolphins, whales, cetaceans, elephants, big cats, bears, reptiles and primates"
In 2020, WAP revealed that Expedia's dolphin and cetacean entertainment policies were lacking, with over 1000 animals performing at properties listed by the site.
The Expedia Group is the latest booking giant to follow other listings websites, including TripAdvisor and Booking.com, in banning animal interactions from their websites.
New Zealand's last dolphin in captivity died in 2008, at Napier Marineland, which has since closed. The end of New Zealand's performing dolphins, cetaceans can only be seen in the wild around the country's coastline.
Swimming with wild cetaceans and wild dolphins has been carefully controlled since the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1992.
A spokesperson for DOC said there are currently "four active permits for commercial swimming or diving with marine mammals," dolphin diving experiences.
