Includes bibliographical references and index.

This book draws attention to the need for a comprehensive and rigorous focus on local solutions to improve the welfare of captive elephants, their mahouts and local residents, and to enhance tourists' experiences of elephant tourism. It achieves this by critically reviewing recent research into elephant tourism, and providing contemporary analytical case studies of elephant tourism policy and practice. The book has six sections, covering personal stories of interactions with elephants, through the expectations and experiences of visitors to elephant attractions, and some of the ethical and moral perspectives relating to their treatment. It then continues by offering some thoughts on management frameworks and alternate forms of interacting with them before concluding with some elephant tales as related at various tourist venues and by tourists though social media channels. In that last section in particular, it is as if the proxy voice of the elephant is finally being expressed and, hopefully, heard. The book has 21 chapters, a postscript, and a subject index.

Introduction to The Elephant Tourism Business / John Koldowski, Eric Laws, Noel Scott and Xavier Font -- Managing the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp: Eric Laws Interviews John Roberts -- PATA and Jetwing: John Koldowski Interviews Chi Lo and Senal Siriwardene -- The Elephant in the Room: An Autoethnographic Approach / Vinathe Sharma-Brymer and Eric Brymer -- Drivers of Elephant Tourism in Thailand / Bongkosh Rittichainuwat, Noel Scott and Eric Laws -- Visitor Expectations and Behaviours at Elephant Camps / Saranphat Chotmanakul and Somyot Ongkhluap -- Alternative Forms of Elephant Tourism / Susanna Curtin and Charlotte Day -- Elephant Visitor Preferences and Experiences in Sri Lanka / Ramona Str�odecke and Nicole H�ausler -- Moral Tensions for Elephant Visitors / Anja Pabel and Mucha Mkono -- The Valuation of Ethical Encounters with Elephants / Qingming Cui and Honggang Xu -- Community Collaboration, Elephant Conservation and Protection / Liv Baker, Sarah Blaine and Rebecca Winkler -- Conservation-Based Elephant Tourism: An Importance-Performance Analysis / Daminda Sumanapala, Nilakshi W.K. Galahitiyawe and Isabelle D. Wolf -- The Effectiveness of Elephant Welfare Regulation in India / Sumanth Bindumadhav, Alokparna Sengupta and Shilpa Mahbubani -- Elephant Tourism Conservation and the Need for a New Strategy: Thai Stakeholder Attitudes / Ann Suwaree Ashton -- Elephant Tourism, the ABTA Animal Welfare Guidelines / Clare Jenkinson -- A Case Study of Elephant Venue Narratives / Jeffrey Dale Hobbs and Piengpen Na Pattalung -- The Valuation of Elephant Sightings in Protected Areas / Andrea Saayman and Melville Saayman -- Social Media: A Proxy Voice for Elephants / Kannapa Pongponrat and Naphawan Chantradoan -- Modernizing Human-Elephant Interactions / Andrew McLean -- Validating a Captive Elephant Welfare Index / Vivek Gurusamy and Clive Phillips -- Promoting Elephant-Friendly Tourism / Marjorie van Strien and Jan Schmidt-Burbach -- The Paradox of Elephant-Friendly Tourism / Daniel Turner and Naut Kusters -- Postscript: COVID-19 and Elephant Tourism, a Preliminary Analysis / Eric Laws, John Koldowski, Xavier Font, Noel Scott, Taweepoke Angkawanish, Nina Brask, Daniel Turner, Bongkosh Rittichainuwat, Suphaporn Rattanaphinanchai and John Roberts -- Conclusion / Xavier Font, Noel Scott, John Koldowski and Eric Laws.

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