NEW! Wildlife Encounters with World Animal Protection

World Animal Protection & World Expeditions Join Forces to Launch Responsible Wildlife Adventures

Four new trips for 2017 that will take the guesswork out of responsible wildlife encounters

We are proud to announce an exciting new partnership: we are teaming up with global animal welfare organisation World Animal Protection and have developed a series of new trips that will offer incredible wildlife encounters without causing harm to wildlife.

Although World Animal Protection has partnered with several tour operators to ensure they have ethical policies to protect wildlife, this is the first time that it has partnered with a travel company to develop bespoke trips.

Many travellers are unaware of the cruelty that happens behind the scenes in the tourist entertainment industry. For example, elephants are ‘broken in’ to make an elephant obey its owner and accept human riders, while baby tigers suffer early removal from their mothers followed by unrelenting handling and stressful interactions with visitors. Our new partnership allows you to join animal friendly trips, safe in the knowledge that World Animal Protection has reviewed the itineraries and given its stamp of approval.

The new adventures focus on wild animal encounters and visit conservancies in Kenya, India and Thailand, while a fourth trip, in Romania, aims to highlight the amazing work being undertaken at a bear sanctuary and a homeless dog shelter. In addition, we will donate a percentage of each trip to World Animal Protection to support their work to save animals from abuse and neglect.

Commenting on the new trips, Gordon Steer, UK Manager for World Expeditions, said “World Animal Protection and World Expeditions advocate for wild animals to be kept in the wild, safe from unethical tourism; however, we realise that navigating the world of animal friendly travel can be puzzling at times. By joining forces we take the ‘guess work’ out of wildlife travel experiences and in 2017 we bring you these carefully crafted itineraries that offer the best wildlife viewing opportunities in four fascinating destinations. If animal encounters are high on your list for your next holiday – and you want to make sure your experiences are not harmful – then these trips, developed with and closely reviewed by World Animal Protection, are perfect for you”.

Alyx Elliott, Head of Campaigns at World Animal Protection UK, said “Tourists want to see wildlife on their holidays, however many are unaware of the cruelty that goes on behind the scenes to make elephants, tigers and other wild animals accept such close human contact. We have given World Expeditions’ responsible wildlife encounters our seal of approval and we are very excited that a growing number of tour operators are providing tourists with exciting opportunities to see wildlife in a responsible way.”

Launching in 2017, the four new itineraries will offer you some of the world’s best wildlife encounters:

>> Wild Animal Encounters in India

Wildlife excursions in some of India’s best National Parks (including Corbett, Ranthambore and Bandhavagarh) spotting tigers, jungle cats, deer, sloth, otters and rhesus monkeys, all in their wild habitat and displaying their natural behaviours.

>> View the trip

>> Wild Animal Encounters in Thailand

Journey through Thailand’s National Parks spotting wild elephants, gaurs, tigers and gibbons, with a day spent at the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand wildlife rescue centre to learn about the plight of elephants in the country.

>> View the trip

>> Animal Encounters in Romania

A carefully crafted adventure where you can see first-hand how the Libearty Bear Sanctuary in Brasov has given new life to once‑captive bears and how the Save The Dog and Other Animals in Constanta is promising a future to the stray dogs of Romania.

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>> Wild Animal Encounters in Kenya

Natural wildlife sightings will abound as you visit some of Kenya’s most sustainable national parks and conservancies, with further visits to Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary and the David & Daphne Sheldrick’s Elephant Orphanage.

>> View the trip

As well as taking you to some of the most interesting corners of the world, our adventures are a meaningful way to rediscover our role in the environment around us, and how protecting it can be a life changing experience. We are widely recognised for our Responsible Tourism initiatives, which include our Animal Welfare in Tourism Code of Conduct (in conjunction with World Animal Protection), the 10 Pieces - Litter Collection principle, and a Responsible Travel Guidebook.

For more information on these trips and booking details, please get in touch with our team of travel experts.