New Exposé Details How Travel Giant GetYourGuide Profits From Animal Cruelty

GetYourGuide Sells to Some of the Worst Animal Venues in the World

At a dilapidated aquarium in Miami, Florida, a dolphin with acute trauma is found dead at the bottom of a tank. At a historical fort in Jaipur, India, an elephant is beaten with bullhooks and forced to give rides to tourists. In the Cayman Islands, a terrified turtle dies after a visitor picks her up and drops her, cracking her shell. GetYourGuide sells tickets and experiences for each of these venues, and many more like them, every day.

Our exposé, Making Memories Misery: How GetYourGuide Profits From Animal Cruelty, details some of the worst animal venues that GetYourGuide sells to, including:

Dolphin Discovery (Mexico, Caribbean, US): Swim-with-dolphins facilities that sell interactions with dolphins, sea lions, manatees, sharks, and sting rays.

Miami Seaquarium (Florida, US): A marine amusement park with numerous welfare violations and animal deaths. 

Amer Fort (Jaipur, India): A popular tourist destination in Rajasthan where 81 elephants carry tourists up a crippling climb in extreme temperatures. 

Fake elephant sanctuaries (Thailand): These elephant camps brand themselves as sanctuaries, refuges, rescues, or conservation centers but allow visitors to engage in stressful encounters with elephants (including touching, bathing, posing, and painting their bodies).

Daniel Johnson’s Monkey and Sloth Hangout (Roatán, Honduras): A pseudosanctuary that offers ziplining, ATV riding, and encounters with wild animals.  

Gatorland (Florida, US): An alligator-themed zoo that runs cruel alligator shows and offers wild animal encounters.

Cayman Turtle Centre (West Bay, Cayman Islands): The only large-scale turtle farm in the world, Cayman Turtle Centre (CTF) confines thousands of endangered green sea turtles to kill them for their meat and use them in tourist encounters.

Bali (Bali Zoo, Bali Safari Marine Park, Lovina Beach, Ubud Sacred Monkey Forest): Thousands of wild animals are held in ramshackle zoos and dolphinariums across Bali and Lombok in Indonesia. In both 2018 and 2023, World Animal Protection investigated 34 popular wildlife venues on these islands. The majority of the venues do not meet even the basic needs of animals, and there is currently no ethical way to observe wild animals in Bali and Lombok.

Pressure GetYourGuide to Protect Animals

Other global travel companies have taken important steps to protect wild animals in tourism. For example, Airbnb, Booking.com, and The Travel Corporation have removed captive wildlife venues from their sites. World Animal Protection has worked with travel companies in the US and worldwide to create animal welfare policies. But as the industry moves forward, GetYourGuide has made zero effort. 

Help protect wild animals and tell GetYourGuide to adopt a public animal welfare policy.

Act Now