World Expeditions has announced an exciting new partnership: the adventure travel specialist is teaming up with global animal welfare organisation World Animal Protection to develop a series of new trips that will offer incredible wildlife encounters without causing harm to wildlife.

Although World Animal Protection has worked with several tour operators to ensure they have ethical policies to protect wildlife, this the first time that it has partnered with a travel company to develop bespoke trips.
    
Many tourists are unaware of the cruelty that happens behind the scenes in the tourist entertainment industry. For example, elephants are 'broken in' to make an elephant obey its owner and accept human riders, while baby tigers suffer early removal from their mothers followed by unrelenting handling and stressful interactions with visitors. This new partnership allows travellers to join animal friendly trips, safe in the knowledge that World Animal Protection has reviewed the itineraries and given its stamp of approval.

The new adventures will focus on wild animal encounters and visiting conservancies in Kenya, India and Thailand, while a fourth trip, in Romania, aims to highlight the amazing work being undertaken at a bear sanctuary and a homeless dog shelter. In addition, World Expeditions will donate a percentage of each trip to World Animal Protection to support their work to save animals from abuse and neglect.

Commenting on the new trips, Gordon Steer, UK Manager for World Expeditions, said:

“World Animal Protection and World Expeditions advocate for wild animals to be kept in the wild, safe from unethical tourism; however, we realise that navigating the world of animal friendly travel can be puzzling at times.

By joining forces we take the 'guess work' out of wildlife travel experiences and in 2017 we bring you these carefully crafted itineraries that offer the best wildlife viewing opportunities in four fascinating destinations.

If animal encounters are high on your list for your next holiday – and you want to make sure your experiences are not harmful – then these trips, developed with and closely reviewed by World Animal Protection, are perfect for you”.

Alyx Elliott, Head of Campaigns at World Animal Protection UK, said:

“Tourists want to see wildlife on their holidays, however many are unaware of the cruelty that goes on behind the scenes to make elephants, tigers and other wild animals accept such close human contact.

We have given World Expeditions' responsible wildlife encounters our seal of approval and we are very excited that a growing number of tour operators are providing tourists with exciting opportunities to see wildlife in a responsible way.”

Launching in 2017, the four new itineraries will offer travellers some of the world's best wildlife encounters:

Wild Animal Encounters in India (departs 24 February 2017, from £1,890 per person): Wildlife excursions in some of India's best National Parks (including Corbett, Ranthambore and Bandhavagarh) spotting tigers, jungle cats, deer, sloth, otters and rhesus monkeys, all in their wild habitat and displaying their natural behaviours.

Wild Animal Encounters in Thailand (departs 3 March 2017, from £2,090 per person): Journey through Thailand's National Parks spotting wild elephants, gaurs, tigers and gibbons, with a day spent at the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand wildlife rescue centre to learn about the plight of elephants in the country.

Animal Encounters in Romania (departs 14 May 2017, from £1,390 per person): A carefully crafted adventure where you can see first-hand how the Libearty Bear Sanctuary in Brasov has given new life to once captive bears and how the Save The Dog and Other Animals in Constanta is promising a future to the stray dogs of Romania.

Wild Animal Encounters in Kenya (departs 7 July 2017, from £3,190 per person): Natural wildlife sightings will abound as you visit some of Kenya's most sustainable national parks and conservancies, with further visits to Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary and the David & Daphne Sheldrick's Elephant Orphanage.

World Expeditions has been operating small group adventure travel holidays for more than four decades and is widely recognised for its Responsible Tourism initiatives, which include developing an Animal Welfare in Tourism Code of Conduct (in conjunction with World Animal Protection), the 10 Pieces - Litter Collection principle and a Responsible Travel Guidebook.

For more information on the trips and bookings please visit www.worldexpeditions.co.uk or call 0800 0744 135.

For more information on World Animal Protection and its initiatives please visit www.worldanimalprotection.org.

World Expeditions' policy ensures there are no local payments. Trip prices do not include international flights, however these can be arranged on request.

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NOTES FOR EDITORS:

About World Expeditions
One of the very first operators in what is now becoming a very popular area in travel, since its inception in 1975 World Expeditions has earned itself an outstanding reputation as a world leader in small group adventure holidays and cultural journeys. World Expeditions remains independently owned and a truly global company, with seven offices around the world, including the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The two factors that distinguish World Expeditions from its competitors, the number of inclusions and the exceptional value of its trips, can be found today in more than 500 stand-alone itineraries across all continents, escorted by expert leaders and meticulously designed for those travellers who want to 'take the paths less travelled'.

Always innovative, it was, among others, the first operator to offer cycling holidays in India (1977) and China (1978) and trekking trips in Mongolia (1980), Tibet (1981) and Japan (1999). As of 2011 World Expeditions is the only commercial company to offer the Full Nepal Traverse of the newly mapped Great Himalaya Trail. Exclusive to World Expeditions, a number of permanent eco-campsites, designed to increase travellers' comfort levels, are in operation in the Himalaya (Everest, Annapurna); new design-led campsites can also be found on the iconic Larapinta Trail in Australia.

The European division of World Expeditions, activity holiday specialists UTracks and Sherpa Expeditions, cover over 20 countries, with more than 400 stand-alone itineraries, from short four-day breaks to longer two-week trips.

The World Expeditions Travel Group consists of 10 travel brands in total, also including Adventure South, Australian Walking Holidays, Great Canadian Trails, Huma Charity Challenge, Tasmanian Expeditions, World Youth Adventures and Yomads.

About World Animal Protection
World Animal Protection (formerly WSPA) seeks to create a world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty has ended. Active in more than 50 countries, we work directly with animals and with the people and organisations that can ensure animals are treated with respect and compassion. We hold consultative status at the Council of Europe and collaborate with national governments and the United Nations.
As part of our Wildlife. Not Entertainers campaign we strive to work with the tourism industry and educate tourists about the cruelty behind animal entertainment and inspire them to choose more sustainable and welfare-friendly options for travel. The campaign has so far inspired 108 global travel companies to no longer offer visits to venues with elephant rides and shows in any of their markets.

FOR HIGH-RES IMAGES AND PR/MEDIA ENQUIRIES:

World Expeditions UK
020 8875 5060
Tom Panagos pr@worldexpeditions.co.uk
Gordon Steer gordon@worldexpeditions.co.uk
Els van Veelen els@worldexpeditions.co.uk