“I think the average person would think that there’s animals there, there’s gotta be laws and regulations behind what’s happening, but that’s not the case, even in places like the U.S.,” Wes Sechrest, the chief scientist and chief executive of the conservation group G.W.C., said.

The entire initiative began several months ago after animal groups and users in the TripAdvisor community expressed concerns, the company said.

In April, the World Animal Protection (W.A.P.) agency singled out TripAdvisor in its “Wildlife, not entertainers” campaign, asking for signatures on a petition calling for the types of changes that the company is now promising to implement. W.A.P. will now be partnering with TripAdvisor on its educational initiative.

While most of the animal groups involved in this effort echoed PETA’s overall approval of the new policies, not all groups had every concern addressed.

“There are some areas that I think every one of these groups we spoke with would agree on, and there are some that are not universally agreed upon,” TripAdvisor’s chief marketing officer, Barbara Messing, said. “We just had to, at the end of the day, come to our own conclusions internally about what makes sense for us and what we thought reflected the totality of what we learned from the groups.”

PETA opposes all activities where animals are kept in captivity for profit, including those at zoos and aquariums, but these attractions will remain bookable. However, add-on attractions that are not in compliance with the new policy will not, TripAdvisor said.

TripAdvisor’s new policy also includes many exemptions, like feeding programs where visitors are under the supervision of zoo or wildlife officials, such as giraffe feeding at the San Diego Zoo, children’s petting zoos with domestic animals and voluntourism programs like the ones at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand, where contact with elephants is likely for visiting volunteers.