Upcoming: Emerging Voices for Animals in Tourism 2023 conference (8th-10th March)

The Civet Project and Fanimal collaboration heads into it's second year as hosts Jes Hooper and Carol Kline prepare to welcome participants from across the globe to their second international conference taking place 8th-10th March 2023.

Initially the brain child of Jes Hooper (Anthrozoologist and founder of the Civet Project) and Carol Kline (Tourism Professor and founder of Fanimal), Emerging Voices for Animals in Tourism came from a shared passion to reduce the negative impacts of tourism upon other-than-human animals. As academics whose work focusses on animals in tourism, and as founders of animal centred non-profits, Jes and Carol first met in a Facebook Group 'Ethics and Animals' where they were each engaging in conversations related to animals in tourism. Upon realising their shared interests including a desire to engaging with early career scholars and professionals within the animal advocacy and tourism sphere, Jes and Carol started collaborating on several projects related to animals in tourism. Of particular interest, was the shared view that there was a need for a space where animal advocacy and scholarship could connect, where transdisciplinary practice could be fostered and emergent voices supported.

And so, Emerging Voices for Animals in Tourism was established, and in 2022 the duo launched an inaugural virtual conference- hosted over two days via Zoom. Attended by over one hundred participants from across the globe and from multiple disciplines, the conference was a huge success as academics and advocacy professionals came together to highlight the most prominent issues facing animals in tourism and to discuss the ways in which the industry could move forward to bring about positive change for animals. Keynote speakers included award winning photo journalist Aaron Gekoski, whose undercover investigations have shone a light on the plight of animals serving as touristic entertainers, Alvaro López and Jafet Venegas who shared their research into the Zonkies of Mexico, Nora Livingstone whose award winning B Corp Animal Experience International is paving the way towards ethical consent-based animal tourism practices, and Jes Hooper who shared her research into the rising trend of civet coffee tourism in Bali.

Emerging Voices for Animals in Tourism 2023 #EVAT23

This year, Emerging Voices for Animals in Tourism returns for a second year before transitioning to a biannual event. Building on the successes of the inaugural event and to facilitate even more emerging voices, this years online conference will be hosted over three days and three time-zones (EST, GMT and JST), and will feature the works of 34 emerging scholars/animal advocacy professionals, five keynote speeches from NGOs and established scholars including David Fennell and Mucha Mkono, an exclusive book reading, film screening, a panel discussion with industry experts including World Animal Protection and Animondial, and after-party networking sessions. Each day will cover a range of animal tourism topics from animal welfare, conservation, animal labour, multi-species spaces, vegan ethics, and much more! Talks have also been carefully selected to ensure a diversity of taxonomic species are represented, from insects to wales, and each panel is hosted by experts from across animal and tourism studies.

In addition to the event itself, a series of emerging presenters will be sharing their research and their conference experience in a special mini-series of the podcast The Deal With Animals hosted by Marika Bell, which will be launched the week of the conference.

With just two weeks to go until the conference opens, Jes Hooper and Carol Kline also took to the airwaves- together they were interviewed for a bonus episode of the Animal Turn podcast, hosted by Claudia Hirtenfelder where they discuss all things animal tourism and what emerging voices can do to advocate for animals.

You can listen to the bonus podcast episode of the Animal Turn here. To view a full conference program and to register, visit www.animalsintourism.com

To join the growing EVAT community, head on over to Facebook.