(11 Mar 2021)
During the Mekong Tourism Advisory Group’s (MeTAG)
inaugural Experts Call on 10 March 2021,
John Roberts, Director of
the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF) in Thailand, said he
was concerned that in the rush to restart tourism, the hospitality
industry may forget lessons learned from when nature was given a
chance to rejuvenate away from mass tourism.

To ask him more about those thoughts, Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com interviewed John over Skype
on 11 March 2021, almost a year
since

their last official chat which took place at the Anantara
Riverside just before the start of the

Elephant Boat Race and Bangkok River Festival on 28 February
2020.

In this interview, Steven
asks what GTAEF has planned for Thailand’s National Elephant Day
on 13 March, and how the important work they do helping elephants
has been affected by the global COVID19 pandemic.

We discuss
hotels throughout Thailand and what they can do to help elephants,
John tells us whether the Jungle Bubbles at the Anantara Golden
Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort have been a success, what they are,
and whether they are still open.

John also shares his thoughts on
whether sustainable tourism is a realistic vision and how he
thinks the tourism and hospitality industries can work together
with conservation projects to help protect the environment. All
that and much, much more in the video and podcast below.

Elephant Conservation, Jungle
Bubbles and
Tourism in Thailand – Interview with John Roberts of GTAEF

PODCAST

Editor’s note:
As the above video interview was conducted over the internet, I
would like to apologise that the audio and visual quality are not
up to the same HD/UHD quality that it normally would be. Hopefully it won’t be too
long until we are once again conducting exclusive video interviews
in person, but for now we have to make do with what we have. Thank
you.

See also:

What is the IATA Travel Pass and what does it mean to travellers
and the global travel industry? Interview with Vinoop Goel, IATA’s
Regional Director Airports and External Relations – Asia Pacific.

See latest

Travel Industry News,
Video
Interviews,
Podcasts
and other
news regarding:

COVID19,

GTAEF,

Elephants,

John Roberts,

Anantara.