Virgin Holidays announces its decision to stop sales and promotion of captive cetacean (whale and dolphin) attractions.

Virgin Holidays has decided to stop selling and promoting captive cetacean (whale and dolphin) attractions, as we look to focus on offering customers more natural, at-distance encounters with these animals.

This decision is the next step in the journey that Virgin Holidays started in 2014, when we announced the Virgin Pledge to only work with facilities that are committed to not taking animals from the wild. The next move in the journey was in 2017, when we announced several steps to evolve the customer offering towards more natural encounters with these captivating animals and started our partnerships with the World Cetacean Alliance and the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

We have now decided the time is right to discontinue working with partners whose primary purpose is to sell close encounters with captive whales and dolphins. We will instead focus our efforts on encouraging customers to see these creatures in the wild. We will also continue our efforts to support the development of sanctuaries for whales and dolphins currently in captivity.

The plan will see Virgin Holidays offer customers a world class, wild whale and dolphin experience portfolio that meets strict accreditation and responsible business standards, with a ‘whale and dolphin first’ approach to all cetacean encounters.