Ethical Elephant Tourism:
What to Know Before You Visit
Elephants are not ours to visit. But if you choose to see them, make sure your visit does not come at their expense.
Elephants Are Not Tourist Attractions
Elephants are complex, highly social animals with needs that cannot be reduced to providing memorable experiences for visitors. Yet around the world, elephants are still used for rides, bathing experiences, photo opportunities, feeding encounters, performances, and other forms of close-contact tourism.
Many of these attractions now avoid words like circus or show. Instead, they market themselves as sanctuaries, conservation programs, rescues, or educational experiences. The language may change while the underlying relationship remains the same: the elephant is expected to perform a service for paying visitors.
CWI believes the most ethical way to experience elephants is to allow them to live freely without demanding access to them at all. But for travelers who are determined to visit elephants in captivity, understanding the difference between genuine sanctuary and exploitation can prevent well-intentioned tourism from supporting harmful practices.
Elephant Tourism Red Flags
Some elephant attractions are easy to recognize as entertainment. Others use the language of rescue, conservation, education, or sanctuary while still requiring elephants to participate in activities for visitors.
Be cautious of facilities that offer:
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Elephant rides
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Bathing or showering with elephants
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Painting, tricks, performances, or staged demonstrations
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Selfies or posed photo opportunities
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Walking beside or physically interacting with elephants
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Breeding programs designed to maintain animals for tourism or display
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Frequent chaining, confinement, or close control for visitor activities
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Marketing centered on what visitors get to do with the elephants rather than on the elephants’ autonomy and welfare
Elephant riding is ALWAYS unethical.
A facility may describe these activities as enrichment, education, bonding, or conservation. What matters is not the label—it is whether the elephant is being used to provide an experience for people.
For CWI, a simple rule applies: if access to the elephant is the product, look much more closely.
What a Genuine Sanctuary Looks Like
A legitimate sanctuary is organized around the needs of the animals—not around creating experiences for visitors.
Look for facilities that provide:
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Lifelong care rather than breeding, selling, trading, or routinely transferring animals.
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Appropriate social companionship for species that naturally live with others.
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Space and environmental complexity that allow animals to move, explore, forage, rest, and make meaningful choices.
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Privacy from visitors, including places animals can retreat where they cannot be seen or approached.
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No performances, rides, tricks, staged photo opportunities, or forced interactions.
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No unnecessary direct contact between the public and wild animals.
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Transparent information about where animals came from, why they cannot return to the wild, and how the organization provides for their long-term care.
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Independent standards and oversight, rather than relying solely on the facility’s own claims about its practices.
The defining principle is simple: the animals should not have to earn their care by entertaining people.
Before You Visit or Donate
Before supporting a facility that calls itself a sanctuary, take a few minutes to look beyond the marketing.
Ask:
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Does the facility offer rides, performances, selfies, bathing, feeding, or direct-contact encounters?
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Does it breed animals, especially when those animals are not part of a legitimate release program?
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Can animals choose whether to be visible to visitors?
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Does the organization explain where its animals came from and why they cannot be released?
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Are animals kept in appropriate social groups for their species?
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Does the facility sell, trade, transfer, or loan animals?
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Is the organization transparent about its standards, leadership, finances, and long-term care plans?
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Is it accredited or verified by GFAS, or does it clearly meet comparable standards?
The less an elephant is required to do for visitors, the better.
Places that put elephants first.
CWI does not believe elephants exist for human access, and we encourage travelers to see elephants in the wild whenever possible. But if you choose to visit a captive-elephant facility, some programs offer substantially more respectful, observation-based experiences than traditional elephant attractions.
The facilities below currently prohibit the major forms of exploitation discussed on this page. Policies can change, so always verify current practices before booking. Note: this is not an extensive list of all ethical sanctuaries.
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Phuket Elephant Sanctuary — Phuket, Thailand
CWI founder Carrie LeBlanc has visited Phuket Elephant Sanctuary and found its observation-based model to be a strong example of more respectful elephant tourism. The sanctuary does not offer rides, performances, bathing with elephants, or other forced tourist interactions. -
Elephant Valley Project — Mondulkiri, Cambodia
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Boon Lotts Elephant Sanctuary — Sukothai, Thailand
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Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary — Chiang Mai, Thailand