About and General Info

Ecotourism

/ˌekōˈto͝orizəm/ noun

Tourism directed toward exotic & threatened wildlife intended to support conservation efforts.

However, now, many in the industry are exploiting animals and animal lovers for money gain.

Remember:


  • Elephants and dolphins aren’t meant to be ridden, tigers aren’t meant to be petted.

  • If you inquire after the animals' health and are brushed off with a typical "they are fine," "don't worry," "its ok," do not trust that they care for the animals and know what is best for them

  • Use your own judgement, often the animals are being harmed/exploited

  • The animals may look happy, or seem to be "smiling" but that is not an indication of their true feelings—unless you are an expert in the field of animal expressions/behavior, of course!

My goal is to help animal lovers discern good eco-tourism places from a bad ones. I understand good and bad are relative terms and also depends on whose perspective we are thinking about, but the rest of this site is designed from the perspective of animals and animal lovers—especially those that want to see and experience the thrill of seeing animals in the wild in a non harmful manner.

There is so much talk about what makes a place a good ecotourism place vs not, but that decision is complicated and leaves much to be answered. "These are rescue animals" is the phrase that we most commonly hear.

We ask ourselves, "Does this zoo, animal/water area, or site support conservation efforts?" If it does, it must be a good place. Right? Short answer: it's complicated.

After learning more about Psychology of decision making, and how our biases guide our judgement, I decided to embark on a journey to come up with a formula or set of simple cues that is far better than our biases at telling us if an eco tourism place is good for animals or not.

Contact me at: protectanimalsfromtourism@gmail.com