Hotel Intel | Analyzing Hospitality & Tourism Trends

Hotel CSR programmes can range from bland and 'something you just have to do', to spectacular events that really make a difference and gets everybody talking. Anantara Hotel Group's 'Elephant Polo' falls into that 'spectacular' category. In their own words': "What started out as a whimsical conversation between two quirky sport lovers and philanthropists in the late 1990's has evolved into one of the biggest annual charity events in Thailand." The event raises money from big name sponsors for research programmes and other projects that are run in villages where elephant raising is prominent throughout Thailand, to help educate in not only methods of elephant raising that are more humane and don't require punishment for the animals, to also educating in a way that provokes questions such as "Why do we actually need to domesticate elephants?" and providing new pathways so that traditional Mahouts (people who raise elephants) can start looking at new career options for themselves and their children. The whole id