by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 9:25 PM ET, Thu February 26, 2026
As the Michelin Travel Guide turns 100, the century old publication is making some important changes to the types of activities it recommends.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) issued a statement today indicating that Michelin Green Guide has confirmed it will no longer sell leather goods or recommend “tourist activities using animals,” including elephant and camel rides.
And that’s not the only new change being implemented by Michelin Green Guide. The newest edition of the Green Guide Spain also breaks ground by explicitly warning readers that bullfighting is a “cruel and declining tradition."
According to a press released issued by PETA, Michelin Éditions has said: “We are convinced of the need to present content promoting responsible tourism, which includes animal welfare. Therefore, activities that can cause mistreatment … have been removed from our guides."
PETA, which has long been campaigning to end animal cruelty in the travel industry, applauded the news.
“Camel rides and bullfights are spectacles of suffering, and the Michelin Green Guide is right to leave these cruel and archaic activities in the history books,” PETA President Tracy Reiman said in a statement.
“PETA is celebrating Michelin for showing the tourism industry how even a century-old institution can, and must, evolve to reflect today’s understanding that animals are individuals who feel pain and fear,” added Reiman.
Public opposition to bullfighting continues to grow, with 8 out of 10 Spaniards now rejecting the gruesome spectacle, according to PETA.
During these age old bullfights, assailants repeatedly stab bulls with lances and banderillas before attempting to kill them by driving a sword into their lungs.
Michelin is one of the most prestigious and influential travel guides in the world to ban elephant rides, camel rides, and other harmful operations. But they are hardly the only company in the travel industry to recognize the animal suffering involved in such activities.
A long list of travel industry brands have stopped offering such activities as part of their itineraries, acknowledging the extreme cruelty involved for the elephants and camels when they are used to serve tourists.
Last year, a half-dozen travel industry companies, including rental giant
Airbnb, agreed to stop promoting or selling tickets to animal rides
at the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt after a PETA campaign revealed the bleak lives and
excessive cruelty animals, such as camels and horses, are subjected
to at the pyramids.
Years earlier, in 2019, Fodor's Travel stopped recommending elephant rides and updated
its content to provide information about the cruelty inherent in
captive-elephant attractions. The excessive trauma and cruelty that elephants are subjected to in the tourism industry has been well documented over the years.
Also as part of today's announcement, Michelin revealed its decision to end leather sales, which PETA says is a win for cows who endure extreme confinement, painful mutilations, and slaughter. The decision is also a win for the planet, according to PETA, as the leather industry is a major contributor to the climate catastrophe, land devastation, pollution, and water contamination.
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