Viator’s Animal Welfare Policy

Tripadvisor Group recognizes that many tourism attractions feature live animals, both in the wild and in captivity. We believe that every attraction has a fundamental responsibility to ensure the humane treatment of animals in its care. While we know most operators act responsibly, standards of care can vary by region and by industry. 

As a platform used by millions, we recognize our role in celebrating responsibility and driving improvements in animal welfare standards throughout the tourism industry. Therefore, we have developed a set of industry-leading animal welfare guidelines that all bookable experiences on our platform must meet. These guidelines are informed by the Five Domains of Animal Welfare, a globally recognized framework that assesses an animal’s quality of life. The five domains are:

• Nutrition: Ready access to sufficient, balanced food and water.
• Environment: A comfortable, stimulating, and safe living space.
• Health: The ability to be free from disease, injury, and pain.
• Behavior: The freedom to express natural behaviors.
• Mental State: The promotion of positive mental states and the reduction of negative ones, such as fear and stress.

Attraction listings (“Things to Do”) on Tripadvisor are evaluated against our Animal Welfare Policy, but their appearance on our site is not an endorsement of the business or its animal welfare practices. We want travelers to be able to share their positive and negative first-hand experiences, so other travelers can make informed decisions when planning their trips. To help travelers understand which attractions meet and do not meet our Animal Welfare Policy, we show a paw print badge on attractions that feature animals. Bookable experiences on Tripadvisor and Viator that do not meet our Animal Welfare Policy will be removed from our platform.

Below is Viator’s complete Animal Welfare Policy, which applies to bookable experiences.

Wild animals

Viator will not allow ticket sales via its platform for, and will not generate booking revenue from, specific experiences that:

• Involve animals subjected to egregious neglect, cruelty, or confinement in severely inadequate enclosures where welfare is fundamentally compromised.
• Involve the illegal sale or trafficking of live animals or animal parts.
• Directly relate to products derived from wild animal exploitation, such as civet coffee or similar practices.
• Involve the failure to provide animals with essential care, nourishment, enrichment, or opportunities for natural expression, to such an extent that it constitutes serious harm or distress.
• Involve riding elephants or close-contact interactions with elephants (including bathing or washing), or direct-contact experiences with big cats (such as petting, photo ops, or handling).

Viator will not allow ticket sales via its platform for, and will not generate booking revenue from, specific experiences where tourists come into physical contact with wild animals in their natural habitats, or with captive wild animals unless specific circumstances apply. We set out those circumstances below, but the following exceptions do not apply to any species or interaction type explicitly prohibited elsewhere in this policy, including but not limited to elephants and big cats:

• Aquarium touch pools used for education purposes, where tourists are under the supervision of zoo, aquarium, and or wildlife officials.
• Invertebrate touch and feel experiences (such as spider/insect experiences) used for education purposes, where tourists are under the supervision of zoo, aquarium, and or wildlife officials.
• Any feeding or touching program in a captive environment, conducted under the supervision of zoo and or wildlife officials, where physical interaction is initiated by the animals themselves as a natural behavior (i.e., the animals are not held, drugged, baited, or intimidated into compliance) and where those animals can disengage from contact at will.
• Any feeding or touching program in a captive environment, conducted under the supervision of zoo and or wildlife officials, where animals are not held, restrained, tethered, drugged, baited, or otherwise compelled into contact; animals have continuous freedom to move away and disengage at will; and the program is consistent with the animals’ natural behavioral repertoire.
• Voluntourism programs for endangered species preservation at zoos, aquariums, or sanctuaries where it is possible that there might be some level of physical interaction with an animal.

Domesticated animals

Viator will not allow ticket sales via its platform for, and will not generate booking revenue from, specific experiences where domesticated animals are put at heightened risk of injury or death for the sake of sport or entertainment. This means Viator does not enable booking for experiences that involve animal racing, such as most dog, horse, and camel racing, or for rodeo-style events, where the format of the activity typically creates these risks.

Experiences with domesticated animals, such as working or riding animals, animal exhibitions, petting zoos and farms, community fairs or festivals, and cultural events, can still be booked on Viator when they follow responsible animal welfare practices, guided by the Five Domains of Animal Welfare. These permissions above do not apply to any experience explicitly prohibited elsewhere in this policy, including animal racing and rodeo-style events.

Shows and Performances

Viator will not allow third party suppliers to sell tickets to, or generate revenue from, specific experiences where animals are forced to perform demeaning tricks or other unnatural behaviors in front of the general public, or where they are featured as part of a live circus or stage entertainment act in a demeaning manner (including imitating humans, such as dressing up in costume).

Demeaning acts are defined as those where an animal is subjected to any training method, substance, or condition that causes physical or psychological harm, distress, or deprivation, including but not limited to drugging, food or water withholding, physical coercion, or punishment-based conditioning, in order to produce unnatural behaviors for public entertainment.

Cetaceans (Whales and Dolphins)

Viator will not allow ticket sales via its platform for, and will not generate booking revenue from, specific experiences where captive cetaceans are held or placed on public display, with the exception of whale and dolphin seaside sanctuaries. 

Guest experiences that take place at sanctuary facilities that provide all of their captive cetaceans with a permanent seaside living environment are eligible for sale.

A seaside sanctuary environment is defined as a natural body of coastal water, such as a bay or cove, that houses cetaceans in as close to a natural environment as possible while providing protection and oversight from qualified husbandry and veterinary staff.

Seaside sanctuaries must adhere to a strict no-breeding policy, must not train their animals to perform in any shows or performances for public display, and must prohibit all forms of physical interaction between guests and the animals, including any in-water guest experiences.

Other facilities

Subject to any other relevant policy stipulations, guest experiences at the following types of facilities may also be eligible for being advertised via our platform:

• Any accredited* facility that has made an official and public commitment to implement all of the following practices:
  • Cease and prevent the breeding of cetaceans in its care.
  • Cease the importation of captive cetaceans from other facilities for public display.
  • Cease the capture and importation of wild cetaceans for public display.

*Accreditation must be provided by a member association of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA)

Bloodsports

Viator prohibits suppliers from selling tickets via our platform and will not generate booking revenue from experiences that are found to be in breach of the Viator Product Standards as it relates to the harming or killing of animals.

Viator will not list products where the primary purpose of the business includes:

• The harming or killing of endangered species in the wild (such as the hunting of endangered animals); and/or
• The harming or killing of any captive animal (such as bloodsport attractions or “canned hunts” where enclosed animals are hunted for sport).
• The use of live animals fed to other animals in feeding demonstrations or as an enticement to perform (e.g., feeding live cows to lions).

Policy last updated May 2026. Viator may amend or revise this policy at any time, at its sole discretion.