Annual visitor numbers for Czech and Slovak zoos

HOMIN96

HOMIN96

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
As we are getting close to what will be probably a record year for some Czech zoos visitor-wise, I decided to make this thread to compare visitor numbers of zoos that are members of the Union of Czech and Slovak zoos more easily. As we eagerly wait for 2019 numbers, I decided to post the numbers for the years 2017 and 2018 to get this thread going.

Year 2017:

Slovakia
  • Bojnice - 360 096
  • Bratislava - 287 991
  • Košice - 208 186
  • Spišská Nová Ves - 111 907
Czech Republic
  • Brno - 308 112
  • Děčín - 114 489
  • Dvůr Králové - 524 721
  • Hluboká - 260 014
  • Hodonín - 166 364
  • Chleby - 56 280
  • Chomutov - 287 207
  • Jihlava - 316 654
  • Liberec - 355 336
  • Olomouc - 339 162
  • Ostrava - 506 973
  • Plzeň - 452 762
  • Praha - 1 445 126
  • Ústí - 163 994
  • Vyškov - 170 198
  • Zlín - 630 621

Year 2018:

Slovakia
  • Bojnice - 403 860
  • Bratislava - 316 597
  • Košice - 224 474
  • Spišská Nová Ves - 117 695
Czech Republic
  • Brno - 330 118
  • Děčín - 115 298
  • Dvůr Králové - 508 885
  • Hluboká - 265 308
  • Hodonín - 172 140
  • Chleby - 58 912
  • Chomutov - 296 167
  • Jihlava - 333 016
  • Liberec - 368 195
  • Olomouc - 357 221
  • Ostrava - 537 412
  • Plzeň - 481 773
  • Praha - 1 427 491
  • Ústí - 173 998
  • Vyškov - 193 191
  • Zlín - 648 375

Some talking points:
• The only zoos that dropped in numbers between those years are Dvur and Prague (of all places :D )
• Prague doesn't count kids younger than 3 years.
• Prague and Zlin are uncontested in first and second place in the Czech Republic, others switch positions a bit.
• Slovakia is and will be unchanged for foreseeable future.
• Zoos with DinoPark (yeah that matters, A LOT...): Bratislava, Košice, Plzeň, Vyškov
• Zoos that confirmed that in 2019 they have already beaten the historical record attendance or are close to beating it: Jihlava, Plzen, Ostrava

Honorable mention from non-Union zoos: Zoopark Na Hrádečku - opened in 2014, obtained zoo license in 2016 and between years 2017 and 2018 managed to almost double its attendance cca 37k in 2017 and 61k in 2018.

I will probably try to dig up the numbers from previous years as well :)
 
This thread is only few hours old and we have an update already!

Today, Zlin confirmed that its attendance will be over 670k for the first time in their history.

Also, it's very likely that Prague will have to wait for the 1,5 million at least one more year, as they hit the 1,4 million mark on 7th December.
 
The Czech republic has 30 licensed zoos (as of summer 2019), unfortunately it´s not easy to get attendance figures for zoos that are not members of UCSZ. I doubt any of those private small zoos has over 100k (but I could be wrong?).

Prague seems to hit sort of "natural" barrier and oscilates for years close to 1,5 mio mark. It doesnt succeed to attract any substantial number of foreign tourists (minus Russians). Foreigners make only around 25% of total attendance - despite otherwise overcrowded airport and historic city center. I guess most tourists simply expect "typical dilapidated eastern european zoo" and never give it a try?

Zoo Brno has never recovered to its former glory after régime fell in 1989. It used to have around 450k in 70s and 80s and today they are glad to cross 300k. Which is sad, the city and suburbs is doing great in economic sense.

Zlín is probably the biggest surprise of last 30 years (visitor numbers-wise) and it seems its growth is still not over. Plenty of available parking space seems to help them a lot despite their location in the middle of nowhere. With new jaguar exhibit next year and Karibuni later, they might break 750k.

Figure I have seen so far:

Papouščí zoo Bošovice (small private parrot collection with monotone rows of aviaries and petting corner, zoo licence since 2011, only seasonal) - 45k in 2019 after just 30k last year and 25k in year 2017.
 
Jana said:
The Czech republic has 30 licensed zoos (as of summer 2019), unfortunately it´s not easy to get attendance figures for zoos that are not members of UCSZ. I doubt any of those private small zoos has over 100k (but I could be wrong?).

Prague seems to hit sort of "natural" barrier and oscilates for years close to 1,5 mio mark. It doesnt succeed to attract any substantial number of foreign tourists (minus Russians). Foreigners make only around 25% of total attendance - despite otherwise overcrowded airport and historic city center. I guess most tourists simply expect "typical dilapidated eastern european zoo" and never give it a try?

Zoo Brno has never recovered to its former glory after régime fell in 1989. It used to have around 450k in 70s and 80s and today they are glad to cross 300k. Which is sad, the city and suburbs is doing great in economic sense.

Zlín is probably the biggest surprise of last 30 years (visitor numbers-wise) and it seems its growth is still not over. Plenty of available parking space seems to help them a lot despite their location in the middle of nowhere. With new jaguar exhibit next year and Karibuni later, they might break 750k.

Figure I have seen so far:

Papouščí zoo Bošovice (small private parrot collection with monotone rows of aviaries and petting corner, zoo licence since 2011, only seasonal) - 45k in 2019 after just 30k last year and 25k in year 2017.
Click to expand...

Some questions, Jana -
How are their figures calculated? - is it all visitors, including free tickets (children, concessions, promotions etc) or just those paying for entry?
Are season tickets or memberships offered? - and how do these affect the totals?
Do all zoos use the same calculation methods?
 
Andrew Swales said:
Some questions, Jana -
How are their figures calculated? - is it all visitors, including free tickets (children, concessions, promotions etc) or just those paying for entry?
Are season tickets or memberships offered? - and how do these affect the totals?
Do all zoos use the same calculation methods?
Click to expand...

Larger local zoos (let say zoos with over 100k annual footfall) usually have revolving counter at entrance and each person passing though must insert its ticket to be let in. Very small children that cant walk are thus usually not part of the total anywhere, but all other visitors, even if they got tickets for free, are counted in.

Seasonal tickets and membership cards are offered by almost all larger zoos, but again, when each person has to pass an entry point and gets counted individually, it doesnt scew real visitors numbers. Czech/Slovak zoos dont use any standard number of planned visits per seasonal tickets - this is usual mothod used in Germany for example, but not here.

Small zoos dont usually have non-standard tickets on offer, or they manage to sell just very few of them. They usually count number of tickets sold and thus underestimate their visitors numbers a little.

Yes, most zoos who are members of UCSZ use similar methods to count their attendance. Some small discepancies exist, for example Liberec counts visitors to all its properties even outside of the zoo itself. Prague doesnt count children under 3. Vyškov sells one ticket valid for both the zoo and dino park during summer, but many families just visit the dinosaurs and miss the zoo.
 
Jana said:
Larger local zoos (let say zoos with over 100k annual footfall) usually have revolving counter at entrance and each person passing though must insert its ticket to be let in. Very small children that cant walk are thus usually not part of the total anywhere, but all other visitors, even if they got tickets for free, are counted in.

Seasonal tickets and membership cards are offered by almost all larger zoos, but again, when each person has to pass an entry point and gets counted individually, it doesnt scew real visitors numbers. Czech/Slovak zoos dont use any standard number of planned visits per seasonal tickets - this is usual mothod used in Germany for example, but not here.

Small zoos dont usually have non-standard tickets on offer, or they manage to sell just very few of them. They usually count number of tickets sold and thus underestimate their visitors numbers a little.

Yes, most zoos who are members of UCSZ use similar methods to count their attendance. Some small discepancies exist, for example Liberec counts visitors to all its properties even outside of the zoo itself. Prague doesnt count children under 3. Vyškov sells one ticket valid for both the zoo and dino park during summer, but many families just visit the dinosaurs and miss the zoo.
Click to expand...

That is very interesting, thank you. I think if you asked the same question in England, you would either get no reply or a wide variety of answers. Your point about counting every visit not screwing footfall figures is quite valid, although it would affect gate income. For example, because an annual season ticket here costs 3 times the entry, we count it once as 3 visits. Some are used every week, but because they only pay for 3, we only count 3. We also do not count children who don't pay (under 3's), or any free, concession or promotion visits. I think if we used the system from your 'larger local' category, our numbers would be quite a bit higher.... we might try it during 2020 in parallel and see...
 
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Jana said:
has 30 licensed zoos (as of summer 2019)
Click to expand...
Is it 30 already? The official list has 29 with one of listed closed already (the license still might be valid though...) and I know one new license was obtained, but I can't remember the name of it. So I count only 29 although it might be just my metric :D

Jana said:
I guess most tourists simply expect "typical dilapidated eastern european zoo" and never give it a try?
Click to expand...
I don't think that is the case, "typical dilapidated eastern European zoo" wouldn't get to TOP 5 of TripAdvisor...I think the bigger problem might be traffic connection.

Jana said:
With new jaguar exhibit next year and Karibuni later, they might break 750k.
Click to expand...
Having a safari camp in Karibuni where guests can stay overnight will help too.

Jana said:
it´s not easy to get attendance figures for zoos that are not members of UCSZ. I doubt any of those private small zoos has over 100k (but I could be wrong?).
Click to expand...
That is why I included UCSZOO only + Hrádeček as their figure was I able to find.

Jana said:
Liberec counts visitors to all its properties even outside of the zoo itself.
Click to expand...
The number I included for Liberec is Zoo only, IIRC the other institutions would give it another cca 40k+

Andrew Swales said:
we might try it during 202 in parallel and see...
Click to expand...

I would also like to see the "unique visitors" method in CZE (not as the main one, but just for comparsion)
 
I think
HOMIN96 said:
Is it 30 already? The official list has 29 with one of listed closed already (the license still might be valid though...) and I know one new license was obtained, but I can't remember the name of it. So I count only 29 although it might be just my metric :D
Click to expand...

Terárium Praha is closed but I think its licence is still valid, its owner runs Biopark Štít. Or is any other zoo already closed? I know only that Mořský svět must move out from Výstaviště and still looks for new location.

The new zoo licence is for Exotika na ranči Bítovany. Nice gibbon families they keep but rather cramped place overall.
 
Jana said:
Terárium Praha is closed but I think its licence is still valid, its owner runs Biopark Štít. Or is any other zoo already closed?
Click to expand...

Terarium Praha is the one I meant, I know Mr. Hnízdil has Biopark Štít as well, but if he would like to license it, he needs to start the process again I think...
 
Is there someone who can please type out (or provide a link) to the official list of 30 licensed Czech. Rep. zoos? Thanks!
 
Some Czech zoos sell special reduced tickets to animal companions (dogs, ferrets, even cats). I have no idea if they count them into their total attendance or not. Does anybody know?

In today news, zoo Plzeň announces it expects to get a visitor number 500.000 before year end. It will be for the first time in their 93-years long history and the lucky visitor will get nice surprice.

Another zoo that´s already broken their all-time record is Děčín. They passed 130k at the beginning of November. (With new owls, wolverine and ibex enclosures to open early next year, they still have space to grow their numbers. Next bigger project might be leopards.)
 
I dug up some older data from the years 2000 and 2010 so we can take a look at how zoos developed over last 20/10 years:

Year 2000:

Slovakia
  • Bojnice - 327 514
  • Bratislava - 147 353
  • Košice - 70 485
  • Spišská Nová Ves - 60 000
Czech Republic
  • Brno - 251 146
  • Děčín - 69 246
  • Dvůr Králové - 557 400
  • Hluboká - 200 712
  • Hodonín - 132 640
  • Chleby - N/A
  • Chomutov - 161 906
  • Jihlava - 182 627
  • Liberec - 360 947
  • Olomouc - 358 000
  • Ostrava - 315 004
  • Plzeň - 212 900
  • Praha - 635 019
  • Ústí - 148 988
  • Vyškov - 45 872
  • Zlín - 330 095

Year 2010:

Slovakia
  • Bojnice - 282 004
  • Bratislava - 302 074
  • Košice - 142 356
  • Spišská Nová Ves - 74 226
Czech Republic
  • Brno - 238 036
  • Děčín - 73 117
  • Dvůr Králové - 454 476
  • Hluboká - 198 897
  • Hodonín - 136 113
  • Chleby - N/A
  • Chomutov - 216 396
  • Jihlava - 226 809
  • Liberec - 309 824
  • Olomouc - 368 543
  • Ostrava - 328 621
  • Plzeň - 460 841
  • Praha - 1 185 320
  • Ústí - 135 064
  • Vyškov - 160 244
  • Zlín - 442 549
 
Zoo Tábor-Větrovy had 83k last year. It has already surpassed it in 2019 so they steer for a new record.
 
We now have the first confirmed number for 2019 - Final attendance for Prague this year is 1 456 526 visitors.

Also, Plzen eventually did manage to hit the 500k mark
 
HOMIN96 said:
We now have the first confirmed number for 2019 - Final attendance for Prague this year is 1 456 526 visitors.
Click to expand...

This is in fact a new attendance record, the best year so far was 2016 with 1 448 353 visitors. Still, a slight letdown. 2019 was an exceptionally good year - ideal zoo-going weather, local wages grow 7% for third year straight and tourism booms. Hopefully next year it can break 1,5 mio finally, with Australia opening in March and two elephant calves due in spring.
 
Some other zoos have announced their attendance for 2019. I add percentage change compared to last year.

Slovakia:
Zoo Bojnice - 401.586 (minus 0,6%)
Zoo Košice - 254.000 (plus 13%) and new all-time record

Czech republic:
Zoo Brno - 331.298 (plus 0,4%)
Zoo Hodonín - 195.403 (plus 13%) new record
Safari Park Dvůr Králové - 541.902 (plus 6%)
Zoo Jihlava - 346.600 (plus 4%) new record
Zoo Liberec - 402 193 (plus 9%)
Zoo Olomouc - 348.209 (minus 2,5%)
Zoo Ostrava - 580.091 (plus 8%) new record
Zoo Zlín-Lešná - 682.826 (plus 5%) new record
 
HOMIN96 said:
As we are getting close to what will be probably a record year for some Czech zoos visitor-wise, I decided to make this thread to compare visitor numbers of zoos that are members of the Union of Czech and Slovak zoos more easily. As we eagerly wait for 2019 numbers, I decided to post the numbers for the years 2017 and 2018 to get this thread going.

Year 2017:

Slovakia
  • Bojnice - 360 096
  • Bratislava - 287 991
  • Košice - 208 186
  • Spišská Nová Ves - 111 907
Czech Republic
  • Brno - 308 112
  • Děčín - 114 489
  • Dvůr Králové - 524 721
  • Hluboká - 260 014
  • Hodonín - 166 364
  • Chleby - 56 280
  • Chomutov - 287 207
  • Jihlava - 316 654
  • Liberec - 355 336
  • Olomouc - 339 162
  • Ostrava - 506 973
  • Plzeň - 452 762
  • Praha - 1 445 126
  • Ústí - 163 994
  • Vyškov - 170 198
  • Zlín - 630 621

Year 2018:

Slovakia
  • Bojnice - 403 860
  • Bratislava - 316 597
  • Košice - 224 474
  • Spišská Nová Ves - 117 695
Czech Republic
  • Brno - 330 118
  • Děčín - 115 298
  • Dvůr Králové - 508 885
  • Hluboká - 265 308
  • Hodonín - 172 140
  • Chleby - 58 912
  • Chomutov - 296 167
  • Jihlava - 333 016
  • Liberec - 368 195
  • Olomouc - 357 221
  • Ostrava - 537 412
  • Plzeň - 481 773
  • Praha - 1 427 491
  • Ústí - 173 998
  • Vyškov - 193 191
  • Zlín - 648 375

Some talking points:
• The only zoos that dropped in numbers between those years are Dvur and Prague (of all places :D )
• Prague doesn't count kids younger than 3 years.
• Prague and Zlin are uncontested in first and second place in the Czech Republic, others switch positions a bit.
• Slovakia is and will be unchanged for foreseeable future.
• Zoos with DinoPark (yeah that matters, A LOT...): Bratislava, Košice, Plzeň, Vyškov
• Zoos that confirmed that in 2019 they have already beaten the historical record attendance or are close to beating it: Jihlava, Plzen, Ostrava

Honorable mention from non-Union zoos: Zoopark Na Hrádečku - opened in 2014, obtained zoo license in 2016 and between years 2017 and 2018 managed to almost double its attendance cca 37k in 2017 and 61k in 2018.

I will probably try to dig up the numbers from previous years as well :)
Click to expand...
Why need to build such amusement DinoParks? Every zoo has some depressed, lonely animals in small cages:(...Why not spend zoos that much money on them?
 
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