Elephant tourism in Thailand: What every tourist must know

Planning to see elephants on your next holiday? We visited more than 200 elephant tourism venues in Thailand and here’s what we found.

Our 2026 ‘Bred to Entertain’ report  capturing 15 years of Thailand’s elephant tourism industry, reveals that elephants used in tourism continue to suffer at entertainment venues, with two out of three living in poor conditions.

Mistreatments include short chaining; inadequate diets; filthy, faeces-ridden living conditions; lack of veterinary care and forced interactions with tourists such as washing, riding and other stressful activities.

Yet within this situation of clear and continuing cruelty, our researchers also found some small improvements since the last study in 2019.

Fewer elephants are used for riding and performances and there has been a slight increase in observational only activities.

The researchers, led by our renowned elephant expert and wildlife veterinarian Dr Jan Schmidt-Burbach covered 236 venues holding 2,849 elephants from February 2024 to January 2025.

“In our report we are no way giving the impression that the third of elephants kept in higher scoring venues are kept in perfect conditions. Captivity is not an adequate situation for elephants – even conditions at elephant-friendly venues aren’t perfect.”

What’s the current situation for elephants used in tourism in Thailand?

Positively, the research identified a consistent decline in elephant ride availability. During 2010, 92% of all elephants were used for rides; this decreased to 43% by 2024.

“While impressive, this drop needs to be put into perspective as the overall number of captive elephants in tourism has increased by more than 70% in the same timeframe. So, the actual number of elephants used for rides has only decreased by 20% (from 1,519 elephants in 2010 to 1,217 elephants in 2024),” explained Dr Schmidt-Burbach.

Thanks to your support, World Animal Protection has long documented elephant rides and shows as inflicting great stress and suffering on the animals. This cruelty occurs both through the rides themselves and through the way the animals are trained and kept.

While the elephants used for riding may look peaceful, most will have been taken from their mothers as babies, forced to endure harsh training and suffer poor living conditions throughout their life.

In the wild they would be living in large herds, constantly interacting with each other, and building life-long ties, while roaming long distances and browsing a large range of plants and fruits. In captivity they usually have very few opportunities to interact with other elephants and are offered a limited variety of food. Their ability to move about by their own choice is also restricted. An intelligent animal like an elephant is psychologically affected by this.

Researchers also found fewer elephants used for show performances. Shows can involve elephants playing football, painting, and performing balancing acts. Because such behaviours do not come naturally fear of pain, control and bribery are used to force elephants to perform.

“In 2010, half of all captive elephants were housed at venues offering shows, compared with only 21% in 2024,” said Dr Schmidt-Burbach. He points out that this is proportionally less than in previous surveys (42% in 2019, 44% in 2015, 53% in 2010).

“While this proportional decrease is encouraging, some particularly popular venues have massively invested in their elephant shows. For example, Nong Nooch Tropical Garden, a venue near Pattaya, has constructed a stadium that can hold 2,000 visitors and is used four times a day for shows in which up to two dozen elephants are forced to participate.”

In contrast to the decline in riding and shows, elephant washing and elephant care experiences are more common.

In 2024, half of all elephants (54%) were kept at venues that offered either washing or care-taking activities. These venues very often promote themselves as sanctuaries, rescue centres, or refuges, so such claims mislead tourists into thinking they are participating in something ethical and helpful to elephants.

In captive environments where elephants have free access to water, mud baths and sand pits, the animals do not require tourists to wash them.

“If given a choice, captive elephants will avoid close contact with unfamiliar people. At washing venues, they don’t have that choice. Their compliance is achieved through a mix of associating the presence of visitors with food, through punishment if an elephant doesn’t comply, and through the regularity of those interactions.”

The danger elephants pose to people in these washing and “care” experiences is hidden from tourists by the venues.

“There have been frequent incidents where elephants have injured visitors – either by accident or because their patience was pushed beyond their limits. In such events, the elephants will be punished. And sometimes, the mahouts – their handlers – are often made scapegoats and will face legal action for not controlling their elephant sufficiently,” said Dr Schmidt-Burbach.

Encouragingly, our researchers found that elephant observation experiences with no human contact are on the rise.

In 2010, only 4.6% of all elephants (75 animals) were kept at venues offering observational experiences. In 2024, we documented 7.3% of all elephants (207 animals) at venues offering observation – almost three times as many elephants as in 2010.

“In many instances, venues offering purely observational experiences have received the highest welfare condition scores in our research as they also adopted best practice elephant management routines. But just because a venue offers observational experiences, better welfare for the animals is not guaranteed,” says Jan.

He explains that in truly high quality, spacious observation-only venues, elephants are encouraged and enabled to maximise their environment autonomously and to forage and explore. “They will also have opportunities for socialising with other elephants, and their mahouts will be skilled in managing elephants humanely.”

Together, we can give every elephant a life worth living.