Thomas Cook will no longer sell tickets to any attractions with captive dolphins, orcas or whales following a long campaign of public pressure and decreasing demand.
The online travel company has ditched the outings as part of a new animal welfare policy and after customers demanded it stopped supporting the trips.
Customers told the firm that they wanted to enjoy animals while on holiday, but they had particular concerns over dolphins in captivity.
To cater for demand from customers to still have experiences within nature, Thomas Cook will continue to offer and promote “wild-watching” experiences involving whales and dolphins, meaning the marine animals are not taken out of their natural environment.
A petition launched in 2016 calling for Thomas Cook to "stop promoting trips to swim with captive dolphins" has been signed more than 250,000 times.
"I love dolphins - they are beautiful creatures so it’s no surprise that people would love the opportunity to swim with them. It’s seemingly harmless but it is actually cruel and inhumane," campaign organiser Katie Bashford wrote at the time.
"Dolphins are often stolen from the wild in order to supply the demand for such experiences. The process of capturing and transporting dolphins to marine parks is excruciating and many animals die during transit. Those that survive are condemned to live a stressful and miserable life.
"In the wild, dolphins are highly intelligent social beings who live in large family groups and can travel up to 100 miles a day. In captivity, they are forced to live in confined, artificial conditions and they suffer immense mental and physical stress as a result. A life in a tank is no life at all."
The former Thomas Cook business removed from sale any attraction with captive orcas in 2018 – a year before its collapse.
Five years on the new Thomas Cook - which is a digital only business - has gone further than its predecessor, stopping the sale of tickets to any attraction where cetaceans of any kind are held captive.
Chief executive Alan French said: “We know that for our customers going to a zoo or an aqua park is an important part of their holiday and we only want to offer those experiences when we’re confident they abide by the highest welfare standards and are not built on animal suffering.
“We have taken the decision to offer only wild-watching experiences for whales and dolphins to help our customers experience these intelligent and sociable animals in their natural habitat.
“We have been seeing a strong return to bookings following the pandemic, but also a decline in the demand for activities that harm the environment or animals.
“Our customers care about these issues, and we are proud to be matching those sentiments. It has been an easy decision to make.”
Katheryn Wise, wildlife campaign manager at World Animal Protection, said: “We are thrilled that Thomas Cook will stop selling captive dolphin venues as part of their new animal welfare policy.
“It is great to see the travel company listening to their customers and recognising that captive dolphin entertainment is nothing more than animal cruelty presented as family fun.
“This continues the trend towards viewing wild animals behaving naturally from a distance and in their normal habitat rather than performing circus tricks for tourists.
“A life spent in a concrete box is no life for a wild animal like a dolphin, it is a life sentence.
“It’s time now for other companies like Tui, Jet2holidays, Travel Republic and GetYourGuide to stop selling and promoting these activities or risk being incredibly out of touch with public sentiment.”
