China Year of the Tiger promotion offering hotel guests rooms looking directly into a tiger enclosure condemned as cruel
- Dubbed ‘beast rooms’, the suites will feature explosion-proof glass and allow guests to sleep next to the tiger
- The hotel said the rooms are not yet open and authorities are evaluating the idea over safety concerns and criticism it was profiting from a caged animal
A hotel in China is under fire over plans to offer suites looking directly into a tiger’s enclosure as part of a Chinese Year of the Tiger experience.
Sendi Tribe Treehouse Hotel, inside the Nantong Forest Safari Park, in Jiangsu province, eastern China, will offer new rooms built around the tiger’s pen in the adjoining park allowing guests to see the big cat through a window and sleep next to it during their stay.
The windows in the suites, dubbed “beast rooms”, will use explosion-proof glass to ensure visitors safety, according to a hotel employee.
The employee said there were four “beast rooms” that have been prepared, but she said the rooms are not open to the public yet.
“They’re not available yet. We haven’t been notified about when they will be put into use,” she said.
An official from the culture and tourism bureau of Nantong city’s Chongchuan district, where the park is located, told the South China Morning Post that it would re-evaluate the “special project” after it caused safety concerns and criticism that it’s profiting from the animals’ misery.
“We will reconsider whether it’s appropriate to launch it,” he said.
The hotel aroused public criticism after a video published by Jimu News on Thursday showed a tour of one of the rooms.
The video showed a double-bedroom suite with a window facing onto the tiger’s enclosure that occupies an entire wall, through which a tiger can be seen pacing back and forth in an enclosed space covered with concrete purported to be rocks and earth.
Chinese hotel that offers polar bears as ‘neighbours’ accused of cruelty
“What’s the point? To celebrate the Year of the Tiger? Is the glass sturdy enough? So you just don’t sleep and watch the tiger all night?” one user commented on Weibo.
“This is maltreating the tiger,” another said.
Local authorities were quoted by the Jimu News as saying that the rooms are a new experience project that has got its approval and the tiger is being kept by the park legally.
01:18
Tourist breaks into tiger pen in China
The park already has a similar tiger-themed restaurant where guests can see the big cat while eating that has been open for several years, it said.
