Elephant tourism in Asia ranges from highly exploitative operations using hooks and dominance-breaking to genuinely ethical sanctuaries prioritizing elephant welfare — knowing the difference is essential for responsible travelers.
Elephants in traditional tourism operations that use riding and performance have typically been broken through the phajaan process — a training method involving extreme stress, pain, and confinement that permanently traumatizes the animal. The broken elephant that allows riding or performs tricks has learned compliance through fear and pain, not through positive relationship. The welfare cost of this training is borne once during the breaking process but creates an ongoing behavioral suppression in the trained animal. Ethical elephant sanctuaries provide large spaces, social contact with conspecifics, freedom from performance requirements, and observation-only human interaction. The economic viability of ethical elephant tourism demonstrates that welfare-positive operations can succeed commercially.