Jacada Travel's Positive Impact Principles are central to its mission of making travel a catalyst for positive change, developed by a 15-person team of internal Positive Impact representatives under the guidance of Natalie Lyall-Grant, Head of Positive Impact. This initiative led to a collaboration with World Animal Protection and an audit of wildlife encounters that resulted in bold consequences: over 40 animal experiences were removed from the brand's portfolio.

The methodology behind Jacada's principles:

• Benchmark every interaction of animal-focused travel against a global framework of animal welfare
• Flag practices that profit from captive wildlife or direct contact between travelers and animals
• Equip Jacada's partners to redesign rather than merely remove offending experiences

“The first audit stung,” said Natalie Lyall Grant, recounting findings from the audit of animal encounters, carried out in collaboration with World Animal Protection, a global animal protection organization advocating for animal welfare for 75 years. “We faced a hard truth: good intentions are not enough; we needed a concrete framework for evaluating the partners that we send our travel clients to patronize.”  

The 40 experiences in question were either unwilling or unable to change their practices and included activities such as riding elephants, hand-feeding giraffes through hotel windows and posing animals for selfies with travelers. Such interactions can lead to heightened stress, shortened life spans and confinement for animals, as well as the sidelining of members of local communities from true conservation work. 

Jacada quickly pulled these experiences and cut ties with some providers. Lyall-Grant also set up a permanent internal flagging system to enable any member of the Jacada team to “raise a hand the moment a red flag appears, hold us accountable to the principles we've set, and keep the process of evaluating our partners transparent,” explained Lyall-Grant. “We want to ensure that every animal encounter we recommend is ethical, expert-led and community-grounded to benefit wildlife, local ecosystems and those working to protect them.”

That means no touching of wild animals during encounters; no attractions that either train or use wild animals for entertainment purposes in the pursuit of commercial gain; and no arrangement with travel providers that treat animal welfare as anything less than a priority.

Lyall-Grant adds: “We may not have it perfect yet. But we've invested in internal education and called upon external expertise to ensure we're moving in the right direction.”

Jacada Travel's flagship Positive Impact Collection, which uses rigorous evaluation methods to ensure properties within it contribute to long-term positive change, was recently expanded to feature dozens of curated travel experiences. These new additions were evaluated according to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations for tackling global challenges and issues such as poverty, inequality, climate change and environmental degradation. Jacada offers clients a curated selection of unparalleled wildlife experiences as part of the collection, including:

• Cycling the Makgadikgadi pans while thousands of zebra shimmer across the salt: low noise, zero tire tracks in sensitive zones, and the funds support habitat protection and human-wildlife conflict mitigation initiatives.
• Animal tracking in Romania's Făgăraș Mountains, which supports the reintroduction of European bison to Romania. This experience is offered in collaboration with community conservation teams, contributing to biodiversity restoration and ecological balance.
• Witness chimpanzees crashing through the Mahale canopy or gorillas beating their chests in Rwanda's forests, where funds are reinvested into ecosystem restoration, habitat protection and anti-poaching.

Of the expansion of Jacada's Positive Impact Collection, Lyall-Grant concluded: “The launch of these experiences marks the next chapter in our commitment to utilize the power of travel to drive positive change at a global level. They will empower clients to make responsible choices and are intended to have a transformational level of impact.”

About Jacada Travel
Jacada Travel is a leader in positive impact luxury travel. Offering bespoke, one-of-a-kind journeys in more than seventy countries across six continents, Jacada sets the benchmark for travelers who appreciate luxury in all its forms. Every trip with Jacada is completely personalized, crafted around guests' personal interests, and driven by the team's honest advice and first-hand knowledge. Jacada's destination experts have been named among the world's top specialists. Three travel designers feature on Travel + Leisure's A-List, while six are listed among Condé Nast Traveler's Top Travel Specialists. Alex Malcolm, who founded Jacada in 2008, continues to lead the brand. His philosophy is shaped by a vision where travel can be a force for positive change. Underscoring this commitment, the Jacada Positive Impact Collection was launched in 2024. It now brings together more than one hundred remarkable properties and experiences, each carefully evaluated through the lens of the United Nations' SDGs. Discover more at jacadatravel.com.