Animal influencers for ecotourism? The case of Moo Deng

Aunkrisa Sangchumnong; Aaron Tham; Hiram Ting; Manop Saengchamnong

doi:10.1080/14724049.2025.2559992

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Animal influencers for ecotourism? The case of Moo Deng

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Animal influencers for ecotourism? The case of Moo Deng

Aunkrisa Sangchumnong, Aaron Tham, Hiram Ting and Manop Saengchamnong

Journal of Ecotourism, Vol.Advanced access

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14724049.2025.2559992

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Abstract

Tourism

Environmentally sustainable commercial services and tourism

wildlife tourism

animal-human interaction

zoo tourism

Moo Deng

pygmy hippos

Animals have always fascinated humans and are often a form of tourism attraction. This research note focuses on a pygmy hippo – Moo Deng, who has become an accidental animal ‘influencer’ for a zoo in Thailand. The research note critically evaluates the use of Moo Deng as the ambassador for the zoo, and whether her popularity can generate long-term ecotourism outcomes for zoos and other forms of human-animal tourism attractions.

Details

Title: Animal influencers for ecotourism? The case of Moo Deng
Authors: Aunkrisa Sangchumnong - Suan Dusit University
Aaron Tham (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative Industries
Hiram Ting - Sohar University
Manop Saengchamnong - Rajapark Institute
Publication details: Journal of Ecotourism, Vol.Advanced access
Publisher: Routledge
DOI: 10.1080/14724049.2025.2559992
ISSN: 1747-7638; 1472-4049
Copyright note: © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Organisation Unit: School of Business and Creative Industries; Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991161845702621
Output Type: Journal article

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