If GetYourGuide truly believes in providing safe and responsible activities for its customers, it must stop selling animal cruelty and adopt a public animal welfare policy.
Earlier this month, World Animal Protection, PETA Germany, and Welttierschutzgesellschaft demonstrated outside GetYourGuide’s Berlin headquarters during the company’s “Summer Summit” staff retreat, demanding the travel company end its sale and promotion of cruel wildlife entertainment activities.
Following the demonstration, GetYourGuide responded to questions from Tagesspiegal, a local German outlet:
“GetYourGuide ‘commits its over 25,000 partners to offer safe and responsible activities for our travelers worldwide that comply with local laws and are consistent with the guidelines of our platform.’ The allegations from the three animal welfare organizations are ‘unjustified.’ The products and providers on offer are checked carefully using ‘guidelines that, among other things, also include concrete standards for activities with animals.’ All zoos and water parks must be accredited.”
GetYourGuide’s response to our demonstration is disappointing. Our animal welfare experts have repeatedly found listed experiences on GetYourGuide’s platform that cause animal suffering, including captive dolphin shows and selfies with sloths.
The company also claims that its activities align to standards and accreditations, but those guidelines remain undisclosed. GetYourGuide does not list any standards for activities involving captive wild animals on its website and has yet to respond to our offer to develop a public animal welfare policy. Accreditations never guarantee an animal’s welfare or safety. Often set by the industry themselves, our research team, as well as independent experts, have found them rarely enforced.
More and more travel companies, including Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, Easyjet, and Tripadvisor (all of whom World Animal Protection has worked with), have developed robust animal welfare policies and removed wildlife entertainment offers from their platforms. It's past time for GetYourGuide to follow their leads and do the right thing.
Let us be clear: Companies that sell captive wildlife entertainment are selling cruelty. Help us move GetYourGuide by sending an email to its corporate executives now and urge the company to adopt a public animal welfare policy and stop profiting from wild animals once and for all.