Online Travel Company Klook Ends Sale of Circus-Style Animal Performances

by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 2:20 PM ET, Fri August 11, 2023

In what marks another step forward in the effort to end tourist attractions that involve cruelty to animals, Klook has announced a new animal welfare policy that includes no longer selling animal shows and animal photo experiences.

The company’s new policy, which ends sales of a variety of exploitative wildlife attractions, includes immediately removing offerings to Miami Seaquarium and Sea Life Park Hawaii. The online activity and tour booking platform’s new policy is set to take effect in October 2023, according to a release issued by the non-profit World Animal Protection, which had been working with Klook to bring about this policy change.

“We applaud Klook’s new animal welfare policy for taking a meaningful first step in helping to end
wildlife cruelty and exploitation in the tourism industry,” said Nicole Barrantes, wildlife campaign manager, for World Animal Protection, US.

More Work Still to Be Done

However, even as the non-profit praised Klook’s move, it underscored that the booking platform still has more work to do.

“It must go further. It must remove all wildlife attractions, including its elephant bathing and feeding offerings, which still involve significant cruelty behind the scenes,” Barrantes explained.

The news on Klook’s decision comes not long after World Animal Protection issued its annual Tracking the Travel Industry report, in which Klook was found to be selling myriad activities that involve cruelty to wildlife.

The report, issued in February, highlighted the fact that some of the most well-known names in the travel industry continue to profit from exploitative wildlife experiences that subject animals to a life of captivity and often cruel and inhumane treatment.

The report revealed that the worst offenders in the industry at that time were Groupon and Klook Travel, both of which scored dismally on the WAP evaluation-a research effort that involved identifying whether companies have policies prohibiting working with captive wildlife venues and whether these same companies continue to sell and promote harmful and exploitative animal experiences.

Groupon and Klook Travel received the poorest scores in the assessment, both earning a mere 4 percent out of a possible 100. Following right behind was Trip.com, with a score of just 6 percent. When it comes to Groupon in particular, the company has a history of disregarding animal welfare in the pursuit of profit.

The World Animal Protection ranking and the criteria used to create it was ultimately shared directly with Klook, along with guidance on what steps the company could take to adopt a more humane approach to animal welfare in the travel industry.

World Animal Protection has had much success with its efforts in recent years, working with some of the travel industry’s leading names to bring about change in the way animals and wildlife are treated. The non-profit has worked with Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, and many others to publish new policies that end the sale of captive wildlife entertainment.

Currently, the organization is calling on the public to boycott Groupon and refuse to purchase any deals on the platform until it stops selling animal cruelty.

WAP has had an active public campaign urging Groupon to stop selling animal cruelty. But Groupon has yet to respond, according to Barrantes. As WAP continues its efforts with Groupon to bring about change, it is also urging the public to help by not using the platform to book any services at all-whether it's a travel-related experience or something as simple as getting your nails done in your local community.

Klook was also named in this boycott but has been removed following the publication of its new policy.