Travellers Choice is officially adopting a rescued moon bear in Animals Asia’s sanctuary in northern Vietnam, with members also taking part in a competition to raise funds for the award-winning conservation organisation.
Animals Asia founder and CEO Jill Robinson travelled to Australia today to provide delegates to the 2024 Travellers Choice Conference in Sydney with a first-hand account of her organisation’s work eliminating bear bile farming and improving the long-term welfare of animals across the region.
Following Robinson’s address, Managing Director Christian Hunter surprised delegates by playing a video – filmed at the Tam Dao Animals Asia sanctuary in Vietnam – in which he declared he was “beyond thrilled” to reveal that Travellers Choice had committed to becoming guardian to Bong Bong, one the organisation’s rescue bears.
Animals Asia rescued Bong Bong (Vietnamese for ‘bubbles’) from a bear bile farm in 2015, and she is now one of 192 bears thriving at the sanctuary.
Hunter told delegates that Bong Bong was the perfect bear for Travellers Choice because, “like our members, she is independent and happy”.
Hunter also announced a competition that will see the Travellers Choice member who raises the most funds for Animals Asia between now and March 2025 receive an Adventure World Northern Vietnam trip for two. The prize trip will include a visit to Tam Dao Sanctuary to meet Bong Bong.
Travellers Choice’s connection with Animals Asia was forged earlier this year when a group of members on an Adventure World-hosted tour of Vietnam visited the Tam Dao Sanctuary – an experience Managing Director Christian Hunter says was deeply affecting.
Sustainability is a key theme of the 2024 Travellers Choice Conference, with Hunter using his opening speech to urge members to find ways to embrace responsible travel practices and contribute to the travel industry’s efforts to reduce its global carbon footprint.
"Consumers are becoming more sustainably focussed and many are choosing to travel in alignment with their own personal values and beliefs,” said Hunter.
“Travel provides amazing experiences, but there is a growing desire for consumers to achieve it sustainably through deliberately selecting where and how they travel. Or travelling more purposefully to consciously leave the destination richer than when they arrived.
“So, my question to members is how conscious are you of your own sustainability practices, or those of our preferred partners, and how are you incorporating them into your sales conversations?”
He encouraged members to better understand their customers’ needs “from a sustainability perspective” in order to build another layer of database segmentation.
“There will be actions that you can undertake to enhance your own environmental footprint and support the conversation. That could be planting trees, encouraging electronic documentation, partnering with appropriate causes, or prioritising product that is conducted more sustainably.
“It could be a new approach to animal welfare where you don’t support animal exploitation – elephant rides, marine parks and so on. There is so much we can do.”