A two-pronged cam­paign to reduce domest­ic con­sumer and for­eign trav­el­ler demand for ivory and ivory products launched in Bangkok, Thai­l­and yes­ter­day.

While much of the focus of the launch event was on the domest­ic con­sumer cam­paign and the celebrity influ­en­cers who are the faces of it, of greatest rel­ev­ance to the tour­ism industry is the 60-second anim­ated video to dis­cour­age vis­it­ors to the King­dom from buy­ing ivory gifts and souven­irs.

Pro­duced by US Agency for Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment (USAID) Wild­life Asia in col­lab­or­a­tion with the Golden Tri­angle Asi­an Ele­phant Found­a­tion (GTAEF) of the Minor Group, the video informs tour­ists that bring­ing ivory in and out of Thai­l­and is illeg­al.

The video suits any travel and tour­ism organ­isa­tion in Thai­l­and who wishes to con­vey that mes­sage to its cus­tom­ers, said John Roberts, Group Dir­ect­or of Sus­tain­ab­il­ity & Con­ser­va­tion at Minor Hotels and Dir­ect­or of Ele­phants at GTAEF (and a “GT” Friend).

So you think ivory is beautiful, yeah?

The main focus of the launch event was the cam­paign tar­get­ing Thai con­sumers, “Beau­ti­ful Without Ivory”, which was developed by USAID Wild­life Asia in part­ner­ship with the Thai­l­and Depart­ment of Nation­al Parks, Wild­life and Plant Con­ser­va­tion.

This cam­paign was inspired by USAID Wild­life Asia con­sumer research in 2018 that found that an estim­ated 500,000 people cur­rently own and use ivory products in Thai­l­and; that around 750,000 Thais intend to buy ivory products in the future; and that some 2.5 mil­lion Thai people still think that own­ing and using ivory is accept­able.

Accord­ing to USAID Wild­life Asia a sig­ni­fic­ant mar­ket seg­ment for ivory in Thai­l­and is com­posed of women who desire ivory, par­tic­u­larly jew­ellery and accessor­ies, for its per­ceived beauty. The “Beau­ti­ful Without Ivory” cam­paign addresses these women. It aims to deter Thai women from buy­ing and wear­ing ivory jew­ellery and accessor­ies and reduce the social accept­ab­il­ity of ivory products more gen­er­ally.

Fea­tured in the video are five influ­en­cers with large social media fol­low­ings in Thai­l­and: Cindy ‘Sir­inya’ Bish­op (super­mod­el and act­ress), Pichaya Utharntharm (celebrity chef), Jareyadee Spen­cer (TV host and entre­pren­eur), Prae­watchara Schmid (Top 10 Miss Thai­l­and Uni­verse 2019), and Var­ine Char­ungvat (con­tent cre­at­or and pho­to­graph­er).

About USAID Wildlife Asia

USAID Wild­life Asia works to address wild­life traf­fick­ing as a transna­tion­al crime. The pro­ject aims to reduce con­sumer demand for wild­life parts and products, strengthen law enforce­ment, enhance leg­al and polit­ic­al com­mit­ment, and sup­port region­al col­lab­or­a­tion to reduce wild­life crime in South­east Asia, par­tic­u­larly Cam­bod­ia, China, Laos, Thai­l­and and Viet­nam. USAID Wild­life Asia focuses on four spe­cies: ele­phant, rhino­cer­os, tiger and pan­golin.