Global travel giant TripAdvisor has banned ticket sales to theme parks and tourist attractions that breed or import whales, dolphins and porpoises for public viewing.
The new policy, which will impact major venues including Sea World on the Gold Coast, comes after the travel company stopped ticket sales for elephant rides, selfies with tigers and other tourist entertainment deemed cruel to animals.
Sea World has hit back at the announcement, saying the health and wellbeing of animals were its top priority and it has a strong reputation for caring for marine animals.
TripAdvisor will stop selling tickets to Sea World by the end of the year.
The review website and booking platform said it will no longer feature “or generate revenue… from any attraction that continues to contribute to the captivity of future generations and cetaceans”. Its subsidiary, Viator, will also remove the attractions from its site over the next three months through an auditing process.
This year Virgin Holidays and British Airways Holidays also ceased their relationship with SeaWorld as part of new policies on animal welfare.