Annual Attendance Of The Top 30 European Zoos

snowleopard

snowleopard

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I have reproduced the list of the top 30 European zoos in terms of attendance, and I obtained the statistics from the book "What Zoos Can Do: The Leading Zoological Gardens of Europe 2010-2020". All 80 zoos in the book have their annual attendance listed, but only 30 of them reach 1 million or more visitors per year. Interestingly enough in the United States there are around 35 zoos that achieve that total, and there is a thread on ZooChat documenting their numbers.

Even with the economic recession that has gripped the world (and hit many European nations particularly hard) zoos are for the most part either holding steady or increasing their visitor numbers. I wonder what will become of Edinburgh Zoo? With the arrival of giant pandas that zoo will be expected to surge upwards past the million mark, and are there any other European zoos that might make this list in the next couple of years? For instance, when the French zoo Beauval obtains its giant pandas it could also see a dramatic spike in annual attendance.

Berlin - Germany - 3.1 million
Vienna - Austria - 2.5 million
Stuttgart - Germany - 2.4 million
Zurich - Switzerland - 1.8
Leipzig - Germany - 1.75
Basel - Switzerland - 1.7
Cologne - Germany - 1.7
Hamburg - Germany - 1.65
Hanover - Germany - 1.6
Prague - Czech. Rep. - 1.6
Rotterdam - Netherlands - 1.6
Arnhem - Netherlands - 1.52
Munich - Germany - 1.5
Chester - U.K. - 1.36
Antwerp - Belgium - 1.335
Copenhagen - Denmark - 1.3
Amsterdam - Netherlands - 1.24
Barcelona - Spain - 1.15
Nuremberg - Germany - 1.08
London - U.K. - 1.05
Madrid - Spain - 1.05
Berlin Tierpark - Germany - 1
Budapest - Hungary - 1
Duisburg - Germany - 1
Emmen - Netherlands - 1
Gelsenkirchen - Germany - 1
Frankfurt - Germany - 1
Karlsruhe - Germany - 1
Munster - Germany - 1
Dublin - Rep. of Ireland - 950,000
 
At two of those zoos (Chester and Leipzig) have already beaten those figures this year - indeed Leipzig has topped two million visitors this year to join that select little club at the top.
 
Thanks very much snowleopard for posting this.

Are the top-visited zoos considered to be tourist destination zoos and thus pull in visitors from far away, or is much of this from local population? The highest visited zoos in the US seem to have much of their attendance by tourism, with Disney Animal Kingdom and Busch Gardens being primarily tourist destinations, and San Diego being both a tourist destination and having a strong local visitor component.
 
^ I'm honestly not sure on that one but it is a massivly important point to make. I think its worth noting that with the exception of Berlin, all of the top 5 exceed the population of the city that it is located in. Whether these are internal tourists or international tourists I do not know, however, it would be interesting to find out.

Anyone know the visiting figures for London zoo in the 60's, 70's & 80's ?
 
A great piece of info there cheers. Didn't realise zoos where such a massive hit over in Germany!
 
I have to question these numbers, particularly Zurich, l have visited Zurich twice in March of different years, both times the zoo had only a few visitors as in maybe a couple of hundred.

To achieve these numbers the warmer months must be overwhelmingly busy!

Of course l could be completely wrong just a hunch.
 
What I find is a bit strange is that Berlin Zoo has 3 times as many visitors as Berlin Tierpark. Both zoos are near stations and it is over 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down, so there are no real problems in visiting both zoos. I visited both zoos 4 years ago and I enjoyed my visit to the Tierpark more than my visit to the zoo. Have any Zoochatters got any ideas about the discrepancy in attendance figures?
 
Dassie rat said:
What I find is a bit strange is that Berlin Zoo has 3 times as many visitors as Berlin Tierpark. Both zoos are near stations and it is over 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down, so there are no real problems in visiting both zoos. I visited both zoos 4 years ago and I enjoyed my visit to the Tierpark more than my visit to the zoo. Have any Zoochatters got any ideas about the discrepancy in attendance figures?
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Although both are equally easy to reach by public transport, I suspect the zoo's central location has something to do with this. If you're in Berlin it feels much more accessible so I suspect it gets more of the 'casual' tourists. Whether that's enough to account for the difference I don't know.

Are these figures for a particular year? Just wondering if they may include part of the 'Knut' effect.
 
Thanks, Maguari. I suspect that you're right about the location, as the zoo is near the main station and shopping area and the figures may include the 'Knut' effect. I visited both zoos in the mid 1980s and went through Checkpoint Charlie to visit East Berlin. The cost of transport, zoo entry etc was about 10% of that in East Berlin. I saw several species for the first time, including Persian fallow deer and various goat-antelopes, but there was a rundown feel to the collection.

Hopefully, Berlin will continue to have two of the best zoos in the world in the same city.
 
My thoughts:
- Almost all top zoos are in city centres or dense multi-city urban areas.

- I'm not sure how they count attendance, but much of European zoos have annual passes and many families visit them every Sunday.

- Much seems to be related to a zoo being immediately next to a major rail station and having a large car park.

- Only few European zoos attract visitors from much outside the city. It is very rare in Europe to travel long distances to a zoo. Leipzig (Gondwanaland) and Emmen are one of few exceptions.

- Many zoos in USA are in holiday destinations like Florida, but only one zoo on the Mediterranean coast made it to the top 30.

- Zoos with small to medium area and large year-round tropical exhibits beat large parks and safari parks. No surprise, given walking abilities of small children and climate. Here, Berlin zoo definitely beats Tierpark.

- EBAs (elephants, bears, apes) make it or lose it. The first zoos without all three is London without elephants. 20th on the list, and has puny attendance compared to city size and tourist popularity.
 
Jurek7 said:
- Only few European zoos attract visitors from much outside the city. It is very rare in Europe to travel long distances to a zoo. Leipzig (Gondwanaland) and Emmen are one of few exceptions.
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I've been to Emmen and Leipzig. Both zoos are within walking distance of the railway station. Emmen isn't a very big place, but it is perhaps the best signposted place I've ever been to. Leipzig is a much bigger city. A street near the station had a few secondhand book shops, one of which had various books about zoos, animals etc and was well worth a visit.
 
Jurek7 said:
- I'm not sure how they count attendance, but much of European zoos have annual passes and many families visit them every Sunday.
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The German figures need to be taken with a massive pinch of salt. The official figures for all zoos in the German zoo directors organisation (which I think includes Switzerland and Austria too) calculate their attendance by multiplying the number fo season-ticket holders by a very high figure - twenty or so, I think. Thus the figure given is often very inflated.

Elsewhere, the contents of these figures is variable. Some zoos do count free entries (which, in the case of young children, can be a substantial number), others do not. I'm not sure whether London included the school children who had free entry (when this was available). There is often a good political reason to make attendance figures as high as possible....
 
EBAs (elephants, bears, apes) make it or lose it. The first zoos without all three is London without elephants. 20th on the list, and has puny attendance compared to city size and tourist popularity.
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Totally agree. I get so sick and tired of London's management constantly congratulating themselves about what a great job they do, when the attendance still hasn't got back to the pre-closure crisis levels of 1990.

What I find is a bit strange is that Berlin Zoo has 3 times as many visitors as Berlin Tierpark. Both zoos are near stations and it is over 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down, so there are no real problems in visiting both zoos. I visited both zoos 4 years ago and I enjoyed my visit to the Tierpark more than my visit to the zoo. Have any Zoochatters got any ideas about the discrepancy in attendance figures?
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Much to my regret, and it's something I intend to deal with, I've not visited Berlin since 1997. I do remember how amazingly short of taxis the area around the Pergamon Museum was; the East still obviously had problems in luring western tourists. Plus, the West has such a huge collection, centrally placed. The unique taxa in the East - its goat-antelopes, mountain reedbuck, cranes, pheasants and raptors - are on the whole, not taxa that will encourage a tourist to make another zoo visit - sadly...
 
sooty mangabey said:
The official figures for all zoos in the German zoo directors organisation (which I think includes Switzerland and Austria too) calculate their attendance by multiplying the number fo season-ticket holders by a very high figure - twenty or so, I think.
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I'm not sure it is inflated or much inflated. Year pass in a German zoo costs like 6-8 times the normal ticket. So anybody who buys it expects coming 6-8 times just to break even. In practice, you see families coming every weekend, going to two-three favorite animals and then to children playground and a bar.
 
Dassie rat said:
I've been to Emmen and Leipzig. Both zoos are within walking distance of the railway station.
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Yep, most visitors to a zoo come by car and maybe short, direct train or bus. Changing transport doesn't count.

Those who ever took a bus with two children and a trolley understand why.
 
zooman said:
I have to question these numbers, particularly Zurich, l have visited Zurich twice in March of different years, both times the zoo had only a few visitors as in maybe a couple of hundred.

To achieve these numbers the warmer months must be overwhelmingly busy!

Of course l could be completely wrong just a hunch.
Click to expand...

Yes, indeed. January to March are much less busy. One of the reason is the season: Most Swiss (and Germans from the close by Baden-Wuertemberg as well as Austrians from Voralberg) use this time for skiing, ice skating or sledging. But after Eastern up to the end of October, Zoo Zurich is often crowded, specially on weekends.
 
Jurek7 said:
- Many zoos in USA are in holiday destinations like Florida, but only one zoo on the Mediterranean coast made it to the top 30.
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I guess part of that is because southern Europe (to generalise) has a different culture regarding animals and certainly doesn't have the zoo culture of places like Germany and the United States where most major cities have significant zoos.

Although the resorts cater in large part to Northern European tourists in many cases, major zoos haven't formed part of the landscape of attractions although there are places like Loro Parque and Terra Natura. Where there are major zoos, they are often away from resorts, in cities, which get tourists but aren't just beach resorts. And I find the development of attractions in Valencia with its new zoo and aquarium interesting.

Also, to address the point about the seasonality of visiting figures, although it isn't like in pictures I've seen from the past, London Zoo can get extremely crowded on a sunny summer's day with large queues outside but go on a cold, grey Sunday in December as to quote my sister, it feels half closed and with so few people you have the place almost to yourself in parts.
 
How many visitors does the Loro Parque have a year? I thought they had around one million a year as well.
 
Loro Parque lists its 2009 attendance as 1,191,000 in the latest International Zoo Yearbook[45].No-one on Zoochat ever seems to make reference to this once-essential book anymore,perhaps because of the price[£149].Although now very scientifically orientated it is still chock full of vital information[see above].
 
One interesting point to SnowLeopard's list is that he actually left out the #1 most-attended zoo in the European Continent, Russia's Moscow Zoo. They estimate their annual attendance at over 5 million. One inflating factor for Moscow is that all children are free. Another factor that helps this Zoo with its attendance is that fact that Moscow is Europe's largest city, with nearly 10 million people.

I don't blame SnowLeopard for forgetting Moscow. He made his list from the WZCD book, which excluded Moscow. Why, I wonder, is Russia (and Greece) not considered a part of "Europe"?
 
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