Does visiting places like Thailand directly contribute to elephant cruelty?

Or is it merely the act of going to ride an elephant (which obviously I'd never do) that is bad? Is it possible to visit Thailand without giving tourism money to animal cruelty? Does anyone have any sources of information on compassionate/mindful travel?

For example I looked into a cool looking accommodation in Thailand and looking through the pictures of the place I saw pictures of the people staying there riding elephants. Made it look like the place had elephants on site or something. Now obviously I wouldn't stay there but it made me wonder if the exploitation of elephants is so rampant among tourism in Thailand that it's unavoidable? Is merely visiting going to contribute to something like this?