ANNOUNCEMENT: Tripadvisor Backtracks on Civet Coffee Attractions Ban
- The Civet Project
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Despite pledging to stop profiting from civet coffee experiences, Tripadvisor continues to list cruel civet coffee attractions that breach its own animal welfare policy.
As the largest review platform in the world, Tripadvisor has the power to set an international example for ethical travel. Tripadvisor was one of the first tourism operators to instate an animal welfare policy, and only last year they were the first to commit to removing all civet coffee attractions from their platform. An in-depth investigation by The Civet Project Foundation, a UK-based volunteer-led charity, found 365 cruel civet coffee attractions listed on the Tripadvisor platform. The investigation, published in the 2024 Industry Leaders Report ‘Tackling the Civet Coffee Tourism Industry’, revealed that civet coffee attractions were present across seven Asian countries on the platform. Of these:
79% featuring captive civets kept in poor welfare conditions
93.2% of civet coffee attractions were not labelled with a welfare warning
A shocking 90.8% were available for booking directly through Tripadvisor
The failure to label civet coffee attractions with a welfare warning, and the companies profiteering through sales of civet coffee experiences, put Tripadvisor in direct breach of their own animal welfare policy.
TripAdvisor originally stated they would address this issue by issuing animal welfare warnings on all civet coffee attractions that featured live animals, and removing any purchasing options. . However, eight months later, Tripadvisor has failed to uphold this promise.
What is Civet Coffee?
Civet coffee is a purportedly luxury coffee, made using coffee beans that have passed through the digestive system of civets, small nocturnal mammals native to Asia. This bizarre brew often catches the attention of tourists, and from there the civet coffee tourism industry has boomed. Civet coffee attractions typically involve a curated tour of a scenic plantation, a chance to see civets in cages, and the opportunity to taste civet coffee for a nominal fee. Research has shown that civets in civet coffee tourism suffer greatly. Civets are kept in extremely poor conditions, force fed coffee cherries which causes caffeine toxicity, acute stress, and premature death, and many civets are even drugged to enable safe handling by tourists. As well as their Industry Leaders Report, the Civet Project Foundation released an award winning documentary “From Rare to Reckless”, where their undercover cameras captured the true horrors of the living conditions endured by civet coffee producing civets. The civet coffee industry primarily relies on capturing civets from the wild, using indiscriminate snares that harm all wildlife. There are also additional concerns regarding the human health risks of civet coffee production and tourism owing to the lack of biosecurity, and the natural propensity for civets to carry zoonotic disease.
Tripadvisor's Failure to Act
In July 2024, Tripadvisor, after being contacted by The Civet Project Foundation, stated they were “making excellent progress in this project” (removing purchasing options and issuing animal welfare warnings on civet coffee attraction review pages). Disappointingly, a follow up audit by the Civet Project Foundation in March 2025, found that only 9.7% of the 365 civet coffee attractions flagged to Tripadvisor had been addressed in accordance to their own animal welfare policy. Alarmingly, another 21 attractions had also been listed on the website since the original investigation.
A spokesperson from Tripadvisor has now confirmed that no further actions will be taken for civet coffee attractions on their platform because Tripadvisor is now reviewing its animal welfare policy. No time frame has been forthcoming. Tripadvisor refused further comment when contacted by The Civet Project Foundation as well as BBC Wildlife Magazine journalists who covered this story in the 2025 Spring edition of the magazine. Currently, Tripadvisor continues to market and profit from cruel civet coffee attractions, despite admitting these attractions breach their existing animal welfare policy and promising to address it. Talking on the significance of this development, founder of the Civet Project Foundation, Dr Jes Hooper explained:
“Tripadvisor’s U-turn on their commitment to protect civets from civet coffee attractions is hugely disappointing and frustrating. How can tourists make informed welfare-wise purchasing decisions if they cannot trust the policies that companies claim to abide by? It is actually more damaging to have an animal welfare policy that is not enforced than to not have an animal welfare policy at all.
It is also very frustrating that it falls to volunteer-led charities like ours to hold global travel companies accountable to their own policies, and for progress to be hampered by broken industry promises.
No animal can experience good welfare when they are fed a diet high in caffeine, it is just not possible for civet coffee attractions to be permissible under animal welfare policies, and yet organisations like Tripadvisor continue to profit from misleading tourists and promoting animal suffering. This is why we are campaigning for civet coffee attractions to be included in the Animals (Low-Welfare Abroad) Act 2023- to make it illegal for companies like Tripadvisor to continue marketing civet coffee tourism to UK consumers.”
With the shocking scale of suffering involved in the civet coffee tourism industry exposed by The Civet Project Foundation, there is an urgency to reduce consumer demand. Tourists cannot make informed decisions when platforms like Tripadvisor fail to provide clear animal welfare information or remove cruel practices altogether.
In order to reduce the risk to civets, the environment and people, civet coffee tourism must stop. The Civet Project Foundation is now launching a public campaign to ensure that Tripadvisor is held accountable. Their petition has already gained 1,600 signatures, and 175 animal welfare organisations across Asia have joined The Civet Project Foundation's call on the UK Government to ban the marketing of civet coffee attractions to UK consumers via its inclusion in the Animals (Low-Welfare Abroad) Act 2023. If successful. the legislation would make Tripadvisor legally obligated to remove civet coffee attractions from its platform.
Take Action
There are numerous ways you can support efforts to end civet coffee tourism. The Civet Project Foundation urges the public to:
Boycott civet coffee and civet coffee tourism
Sign the petition telling Tripadvisor to abide by its own animal welfare policy
Write to your local MP asking them to endorse the inclusion of civet coffee attractions in the Animals (Low-Welfare Abroad) Act 2023.
Spread awareness by following us on social media.
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