Elephants in Thailand: When 'responsible' tourism could destroy a tradition

Benoit Schneider

A little rant about so-called responsible tourism in Thailand, particularly regarding elephant-related activities.

Before I start, let me clarify that I’m no expert—just someone who loves animals, especially elephants, and I’ve been interacting with both captive and wild elephants for about 15 years. Unlike many reviewers of elephant camps on Google Maps, whose opinions often simply echo emotional claims made by Western activist groups, I prefer doing my own research and forming a balanced viewpoint.

This article critiques the simplistic and emotional narratives commonly seen around elephant tourism, particularly in Thailand. The shift from traditional elephant camps offering affordable interactions (feeding, riding) toward expensive ‘ethical’ sanctuaries has significantly limited tourists’ access to elephants and harmed the longstanding elephant-keeping traditions of local communities. Elephants have historically been domesticated safely for thousands of years, with proper management significantly reducing welfare concerns. The idea that elephant riding or close interaction is inherently harmful is wrong in my opinion.

So, I just spent ten days in the south of the country and wanted my friends and their children to have the opportunity to see elephants. But nowadays, the few remaining places that offer elephant rides are constantly under attack in online reviews and are slowly shutting down. There are few places left where you can simply stop by for half an hour, buy a 100-baht basket of fruits, and feed the elephants… as those were the ones were you can ride elephants too.

The only remaining options are so-called sanctuaries where you can only observe the elephants, sometimes bathe or wash them (but beware some lunatics will tell you it’s harming the elephants too! I guess no elephants is the only way to not harm any elephant for some.) – after paying an exorbitant fee, often several thousand baht. For our group of ten, it would have cost us 25,000 THB for just a few hours of watching elephants, with no cheaper option available. The worst part is that these centers, often created and funded by Westerners, usually hide their elephants to ensure that no one can enjoy them without paying the hefty price. Meanwhile, traditional elephant camps used to allow visitors to simply walk in, observe the animals, and feed them. Today, there are over 50 elephant sanctuaries in Thailand, compared to more than 200 camps that once offered elephant rides. But these camps are disappearing under pressure from NGOs and online criticism.

PETA-style campaigns have been highly effective: any average tourist will now tell you that domesticated elephants were brutally “broken” as babies, that riding them causes immense pain and deforms their spine, and that their mahouts (trainers) torture them with hooks. However, this is far from the full truth, even though I don’t deny that abuses do exist.

Yes, elephants need to be domesticated before any human interaction can happen safely – they are massive, potentially dangerous animals, and it’s safer if they have some level of respect for humans. I have encountered wild elephants several times (yes, it’s much better than seeing one in a camp or zoo, but also much more complicated and uncertain, and – all things considered – costly), and I can tell you, you don’t act tough when one approaches, especially a big male with long tusks. There are regular fatal accidents involving wild elephants in Thailand. As for the claim that they can’t carry weight, history itself disproves it – elephants have been domesticated for thousands of years for this purpose. When an elephant has back issues, it is often because it is old, not because it carried loads. And regarding the relationship between an elephant and its mahout, it has traditionally been a lifelong bond of companionship. Of course, there are abuses, just like in any human-animal relationship, but most of the time, the elephant is treated as part of the family. The use of a hook is sometimes necessary to prevent an elephant from making an involuntary mistake that could lead to a serious accident.

The real issue is that the gradual disappearance of domesticated elephants is erasing a culture and way of life that has existed for centuries. It’s a whole culture in Surin, the “City of Elephants” because of its long history of elephant husbandry. 50 years ago, Thailand had around 40,000 elephants (both wild and domesticated), but now fewer than 7,500 remain. If we go back 200 years, there were nearly 200,000. Today, only about 3,000 wild elephants remain, but they have no territory left – they lose more every year due to human expansion, and no one is going to return farmland to elephants. There are more domesticated elephants than wild ones, but their numbers are shrinking fast. There is no longer any incentive to breed them, as an elephant costs a fortune to maintain (food, land, veterinary care), and the camps are closing. Sanctuaries only take in old or sick elephants, never encouraging reproduction.

On the tourism side, the hypocrisy is blatant. Previously, an elephant ride cost around 500 THB (€12) per person – affordable for most tourists. Today, visiting a sanctuary costs between 2,500 and 6,000 THB (€70 to €160), 5 to 10 times more expensive – and often, with little interaction with the animal, barely more than what a zoo offers.

Ultimately, the only result of these smear campaigns is that soon, there will be almost no domesticated elephants left in Thailand. But so-called animal rights activists won’t see any problem with this. They will settle for the wild elephant population, even though it represents only a small fraction of the total number of elephants. And their future is just as uncertain, as they continue to lose habitat every year.

On one hand, tradition and the historical bond between humans and elephants in Thailand are demonized. On the other, domesticated elephants are pushed toward extinction, all in the name of “ethics” and “animal welfare.” And in the end, the only winners are the sanctuaries, funded by entrepreneurs and charities that have turned this cause into a lucrative industry.

My personal opinion is that these domesticated elephants can no longer survive without human help – they are dependent. Elephant rides allowed them to “work” and sustain themselves. And honestly, riding an elephant through nature is a far more interesting and immersive experience for tourists than a zoo-like experience. Like riding a horse is better than seeing it in an enclosure, but from far. It was a centuries-old practice in Southeast Asia, now being wiped out in the name of “responsible” tourism.