South Lakes Wild Animal Park Free entry for everyone!

A family of 4 would usually pay £39 to gain entry and I doubt they would be able to make this up through food and sales in the gift shop. However if they are able to get 4 x as many people through the gates than they do normally I think they would probably end up making more money.

I think it is a really brave move and wish them every success. If people go for free and see what a fabulous park it is it they will probably come back regualrly even when the entrance fees a back in place. People will probably be even more keen to make donations if they go for free too.

Good Luck South Lakes.
 
There is a claim on their web-site relating to their hand-reared cub which seems to be doing well that the Sumatran Tiger is the most endangered sub-species of Tiger - is this not the South China Tiger ?
 
Bele said:
There is a claim on their web-site relating to their hand-reared cub which seems to be doing well that the Sumatran Tiger is the most endangered sub-species of Tiger - is this not the South China Tiger ?
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Is this not slightly off topic? Anyway in response to your statement I think the term endangered can be slightly contentious issue anyway. I think there are fewer South China tigers in the wild currently but how many are in captivity and how well protected are the wild ones. Endangered doesn't just mean how many are left in the wild.
 
karenZOO said:
South lakes are offering free entry to everyone until 13 February 2011 and free child entry until Good Friday 2011 :D

Good move or madness? :confused:

Can a zoo survive on just shop/food sales over the winter?

South Lakes Wild Animal Park
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David Gill tried the free entry stunt at his Australian park for just one day. The place was packed, there were traffic queues down the highway, they ran out of food and had a blow-out of a day.

Attendance dropped dramatically after the free day!

Some years ago the then Coffs Harbour Zoo tried the same stunt in conjunction with a local radio station. The radio station gained all the plaudits, the zoo was over-run with people who couldn't believe their good fortune and - business dropped dramatically after the free day!

In neither case did the sale of food and souvenirs offset the subsequent loss of business.

In both these cases the free entry stunt was tried because normal business was down.

Is this the case with South Lakes?
 
Mr T said:
Is this not slightly off topic? Anyway in response to your statement I think the term endangered can be slightly contentious issue anyway. I think there are fewer South China tigers in the wild currently but how many are in captivity and how well protected are the wild ones. Endangered doesn't just mean how many are left in the wild.
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There are more Sumatran tigers in captivity as well as the wild than South Chinas if I'm correct. I think there are only about 30 South Chinas at all :eek:, compared to the 650-700 Sumatrans (I don't know if that is altogether, or just wild - number taken from IUCN if I remember correctly). I would imagine that worldwide there are more than 30 captive Sumatrans, since I can think of many places with these in Britain alone.
Anyway, we are off-topic. I'm hoping I can get up there sometime soon (was planning on going anyway, but this offer has just made it a must do a.s.a.p.)
 
Steve Robinson said:
David Gill tried the free entry stunt at his Australian park for just one day. The place was packed, there were traffic queues down the highway, they ran out of food and had a blow-out of a day.

Attendance dropped dramatically after the free day!

Some years ago the then Coffs Harbour Zoo tried the same stunt in conjunction with a local radio station. The radio station gained all the plaudits, the zoo was over-run with people who couldn't believe their good fortune and - business dropped dramatically after the free day!

In neither case did the sale of food and souvenirs offset the subsequent loss of business.

In both these cases the free entry stunt was tried because normal business was down.

Is this the case with South Lakes?
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It doesn't strike me as a wise move either. The central tenet of marketing: "never discount your brand". Stores that sell discretionary items (and zoos sell discretionary leisure activities) hold sales only to find themselves in a nasty downward spiral - shoppers wait for sales, because they know they'll happen eventually. In turn, the business needs to generate cash flow so they hold a sale. The cash comes in, but the profit margin is lower. And when prices go back up, the turnover goes back down. So you hold a sale. The cash comes in, but... you get the picture.

Throwing the doors of the zoo open for free is either silly or desperate. It doesn't even make sense as a winter strategy. I presume that South Lakes, like any mid-sized zoo, would have a number of seasonal staff that don't work over winter. The winter turnout needs to cover fixed-costs - permanent staff, food for animals and utilities. At the same time, you want to run with fewer visitor services staff... so ideally, you want fewer, higher-paying visitors. (The northern) Winter is a good time to focus on animal encounter packages, Christmas and New Year parties and *maybe* discounting zoo memberships (but NOT your core product, which is daily admission tickets!) to smooth out cash flow a little.

But relying on food and merchandise sales? Bizarre. They are good for extra income in the peak season when people are paying to be there in the first place. But during this winter, South Lakes will effectively be adding ALL of their fixed-cost zoo operations costs into the cost of sales of food and merchandise. Stupid.
 
It's not like a trip to the zoo is an essential commodity you purchase weekly (for normals, try and imagine it), so its unlikely a family would be motivated to make a return visit where the cost will seem much higher to them having the recent memory of going free of charge.

Also, if there is no real benefit to the zoo, I would argue there is a cost to the animals, with larger, noisier, more constant volumes of visitors. Would visitor satisfaction not drop if the place was heaving and you struggled to get a good view of anything?

I wonder if the owner has plans to close up and move on, and this is part of that plan?
 
This strategy may work, it seems to have done so to Blackbrook over the past year:

I've been going to Blackbrook a few years now and until 2010 there was rarely more than a couple of dozen cars in the car park, in fact during some winter visits there were only about half a dozen car loads of visitors. During January and February 2010 the entrance fee was reduced to 99p. I went during this period, during some pretty poor weather (near constant light drizzle) and the place was heaving, I'd never seen it so busy before (rain or shine), the car park was full and the cafe and gift shop were doing brisk trade -let's face it most people want a hot snack or meal at this time of year rather than a picnic.

During this period they were also giving out vouchers so that if you went in March, when prices were back to normal, you could get a free soup and sandwich at the cafe. I also visited during March, again it was busier than I'd ever seen it.

I've also visited over spring/summer and it seems the strategy has worked -the place was busy and car park bursting at the seams (luckily the place is so big that the increased numbers don't distract from the visitor experience).

I'm certain Blackbrook will have took significantly more money during January to March this year (a few visitors at full price being smaller than loads at discounted prices) than they ever had before and additionally the rest of the year seems to have had a knock-on benefit.

I'm not saying South Lakes strategy will definitely work, but a similar one seems to have done so for Blackbrook -maybe it's a sensible strategy for relatively isolated places with poor seasonal attendances?

Plus, the strategy might generate some public goodwill for South Lakes ahead of the next inevitable argument with the council:D.
 
Method in the (apparent) Madness

David has for some time being at loggerheads with the local council over re-routing traffic to the park. Could this possibly be a way of making a point? Plus of course the other benefits mentioned.
 
I aim to be visiting South Lakes later this week, weather permitting. Will post my thoughts once I'm back.

I'll be aiming to practice with my new camera gear and check out critters like the Jaguars and that tiger cub (if it's out on show?), but I'll take mental notes about visitor number/habits and whether enclosures have improved in the couple of years since my last visit.

If anyone has anything they'd like me to check out just let me know. If anyone else is planning a visit and would like to meet up, that would be nice although I appreciate the short notice, send me a PM. :D
 
would be nice to know if there has been anything happening in terms of the giraffes (e.g. males going out/new ones coming in), any news on the possibility of breeding the pygmy hippos and any news on the big cats (e.g. breeding/ rumoured new exhibit for the Sumaturan tigers)

not much i know :p
 
Well we made the most of a break in the weather and headed to South Lakes on Wednesday - a good decision as storms came in with gales and rain shortly after we left.

I'm afraid I didn't do well with my homework, unable to find anything out about the Giraffes (staff were shovelling up around the pen and understandably not very talkative!), and I didn't even find the Pygmy Hippos. I did fare better with the cats, but I will post separately with a review of the visit, and will upload pictures shortly. Here I'll stick to the topic of free entry and visitors.

On first impression it seemed that the free entry idea was a good one visitor-wise, as the smallish car park was already half full just half an hour after the zoo opened. Being a weekday the family visitors had only toddler age kiddies but there was a small school group there too (who visit frequently from what banter we heard regarding how much bigger some of the young animals had grown etc).

The sign on the entrance kiosk said that while entry was free, visitors were encouraged to leave a donation. You were almost expected to buy a guide book and bag/s of feed; £3.50 for the guide and one bag of food and a meaningful look from the attendant before handing back your change. Inside there were of course the gift shop and cafe/restaurant to welcome your cash but also as this is leading up to Christmas there were the seasonal additions to glean the family pound. Three pounds in fact for a go on the small artificial ice 'rink', and there will be a charge for the nativity and Santa's Grotto when December arrives.

Considering the constant flow of people to view Kadi the Sumatran Tiger cub - which I noted included Mr Gill a few times, toting his usual wide brimmed hat and trousers tucked into wellies - I'm surprised there wasn't a charge for viewing the cub too!

After cute baby tigers, Mrs Squirrel has limited patience for walking round enclosures in the cold and so usually parks herself with a book and a coffee in the cafe or restaurant while I lose myself around a zoo. She reports that the cafe did brisk trade, busy most of the day, while the service and fare was not great it was 'what you'd expect'. She was rather unimpressed with the critter that scampered up to and past her in the alley between the restaurant and the Giraffes however - a rat - which seemed not at all bothered by her standing in the path and ran down a drain cover. I know that every collection has them, attracted by the food and leftovers, but Mrs Squirrel is particular about these things and it being next to the restaurant, was miffed to say the least. This experience means that she will not be returning to South Lakes anytime soon, if at all, but I'm sure plenty of other people will.

If it was busy on a cold weekday, I imagine it will be heaving come weekend and school holidays.

As I say, I'll post a review of the zoo and animals in another thread and upload some pictures shortly.
 
Secret Squirrel said:
She was rather unimpressed with the critter that scampered up to and past her in the alley between the restaurant and the Giraffes however - a rat - which seemed not at all bothered by her standing in the path and ran down a drain cover. I know that every collection has them, attracted by the food and leftovers, but Mrs Squirrel is particular about these things and it being next to the restaurant, was miffed to say the least.
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Mr Squirrel...Interesting appraisal of how the current free entry scheme is working.

I know someone else who visited SL this year and noticed several rats. Although they are probably in all zoos(?) the only other UK Zoo I've seen them visible was Colchester and I've visited many places over the years. Maybe they are becoming commoner now?
 
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Rats are pretty common in zoos that feed animals outside as I have seen them in a few zoos over the last couple of years and even took some pretty good photgraphs of them but this is not saying all zoos have them
 
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