How Tourist Preference and Satisfaction Can Contribute to Improved Welfare Standards at Elephant Tourism Venues in Thailand.

Consumer satisfaction and preference can be integral in influencing and solidifying change in user-driven industries such as tourism. High satisfaction rates are imperative to the continual success of a venue as satisfaction determines the likelihood of repeat business and positive recommendations to friends, family and online review forums. Tourist preference for ecocentric tourism venues, over anthropocentric ones, appears to be increasing in elephant tourism venues (ETVs) in Thailand. To explore this, we visited twelve ETVs in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and compared the preferences and satisfaction of tourists who visited riding and non-riding venues toward the use of captive elephants in an entertainment setting. We found that tourists visited riding and non-riding ETVs for similar reasons, primarily due to recommendations from friends and reviews, and because the venue had a good reputation. Tourist preference for higher welfare standards was observed at venues where participants directly observed poor treatment of the elephants. Tourist satisfaction may be impacted by higher elephant welfare standards; therefore, tourists have the ability to influence the elephant tourism industry by demanding better living conditions for elephants and only financially supporting ETVs with higher welfare standards.

Livestock Stakeholder Willingness to Embrace Preslaughter Stunning in Key Asian Countries.

Preslaughter stunning; the induction of unconsciousness and insensibility of animals prior to slaughter, is an important process for the welfare of livestock. The application of stunning is required by legislation in some countries, and rarely practised in others. In order to effectively advocate the implementation of stunning in the regions that do not include the practice as standard, it is first important to understand attitudes towards stunning, barriers to implementing stunning, and stakeholder willingness to embrace the practice. To this purpose, 17 focus group sessions were held with leaders in livestock production in China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh. Leaders were asked to rate their perceived willingness of livestock stakeholders to embrace stunning, and their rationales were discussed. In addition to this, the leaders were asked to present ideas to improve the willingness of stakeholders to embrace stunning. The data were qualitatively analysed used thematic analysis, quantified, and presented within this manuscript. Importantly, different attitudes and solutions existed by country, mostly in line with the predominating religion within the country, and the stage of economic development. Concerns around nonstatic and constantly evolving animal welfare benchmarks were also presented as important factors impacting the adoption of stunning, and the technical methods used. The findings of this study may aid in the development of programs that aim to increase the adoption of preslaughter stunning practices, to the purpose of improving animal welfare during slaughter.