Ethical elephant tourism in Cambodia

As tourist numbers grow in Cambodia the number of elephant ‘sanctuaries’ is also on the increase. Understandably, people want to experience these majestic creatures in their natural habitat but as their numbers reduce this is becoming more and more difficult.

The death of an elephant that was being used to offer tourists the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity to ride an elephant within the Angkor Wat complex received huge media attention worldwide, as people were rightly outraged that this had happened. Sadly, nothing has changed at Angkor Wat; more than a year later the same company are offering the same experience to tourists that really should know better. All the time that the demand is there from tourists to ride elephants, there will be an organisation willing to exploit these beautiful creatures.

Quite simply, we should never ride elephants or support any project or organisation that offers this experience. If it is not possible to…