As for Blackfish itself, its impact continues to be felt in society. It has been six years since the film premiered and in that time several erstwhile corporate partners have severed ties with SeaWorld and other marine theme parks, recognizing the shift in public sentiment away from these exploitative tourist attractions.
The trend continues: Virgin Holidays’ evolving policy started with no longer doing business with marine theme parks that still acquired cetaceans from the wild, and then expanded to not forming ties with new attractions. Now the tourism company has ended all ties with dolphinariums and marine theme parks. United Airlines and British Airways Holidays quickly followed suit—these airlines will no longer sell tickets to attractions that feature captive cetaceans.
Tourism companies that promote and market tourism attractions all over the world are learning that keeping these intelligent, wide-ranging, socially complex marine mammals in small tanks and pens and using them to entertain people has lost its luster for a majority of the public. AWI continues to pressure dolphinariums to reach this conclusion too and begin shifting their business models away from exploitation and toward true conservation and positive animal welfare.