New tutorial video launches to help more organisations get involved

Further to the June launch of ABTA’s Global Welfare Guidance for Animals in Tourism ABTA is pleased to report strong interest in and demand for the Guidance from organisations worldwide looking to improve animal welfare. In response to this demand and to help organisations start to use the Guidance ABTA has launched a new video tutorial to explain how the Guidance should be used.

The Guidance, the first of its kind, has been produced by ABTA working in partnership with the Born Free Foundation and has been further developed through a consultation process with industry experts, ABTA Members, scientists, zoologist organisations, associations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from around the world. It aims to tackle bad practice and improve animal welfare standards throughout all relevant sectors of the tourism industry.

Now available publically, the Guidance has attracted interest from ABTA Members, international NGOs, overseas tour operators and destination governments and tourist boards.

The tutorial video, is aimed at Members wanting to find out more about the Guidance and how they can use it with their suppliers to achieve good standards in animal protection and ensure customers have positive experiences when visiting animal attractions. ABTA believes the Guidance to be of particular use to Members offering animal attractions in countries where requirements for animal welfare are not well documented and developed.

To date ABTA Members TUI Travel, Thomas Cook, Virgin Holidays, Kuoni and Cosmos have all committed to using the guidelines to assess their supply chains and to ensure that the attractions that they offer meet the minimum requirements. You can see some of them discussing their reasons for getting involved.

Nikki White, ABTA Head of Destinations and Sustainability said: “Since the Guidance was launched we have had a huge amount of interest in the documents both from our Members and the international community, perhaps because it is a world first. It is our aim for the Guidance to be used as widely as possible as this is ultimately the best way to improve standards. I’d encourage all Members selling holidays that involve animal attractions to watch the video and see how they can use the Guidance to help their businesses.”

More detailed Guidance documents covering specific types of animal attractions, such as zoos or dolphinaria, are available to Members or for a small fee to non-Members.