I'm sure Europeans and Americans will love visiting the Sydney MT; an authentic Australian experience for sure. Who cares about wallabies and wombats when you can go and see the same things in Sydney as you can in New York, London, Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin, etc. This is the same as visiting culinary countries like France, Italy etc and then eat at McDonalds every day.
Merlin buys Village Roadshow attractions in Australasia
- Thread starter Chlidonias
- Start date
from Merlin's point of view it no doubt makes perfect sense. To zoo freaks and other wildlife nuts then SWW is fantastic, but it is also a wildlife attraction that has local competition in the Taronga Zoo. Madame Tussauds is very popular in the other foreign locations I suspect, and in Sydney would be a unique attraction to bring in a lot more people, especially if SWW is still there in part anyway. I myself can't think of a much more boring activity than wandering around a wax museum, but the people being attracted to Madame Tussauds could likely say the same about SWW if they're not overly interested in animals.
It is very much for real!
Most of the inverts are going and the reptile population will be reduced and relocated upstairs within the facility.
As Gryphon has pointed out - this is all about the buck.
Kylie and Hoges et al won't need heating, feeding or cleaning up after them - imagine the savings!
that will please a few folk across the bay
Very perceptive and spot on!
I wonder where the reptiles will go? Do you think Taronga might get some or other smaller fauna parks such as the Australian Reptile Park or Featherdale?
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
Whilst I`m not the greatest fan of Merlins design a kit Sealife Centres,I would say give them a chance they do every now and again doing something,that will surprise you for all the right reasons.Like last year when they brought 2 Scalloped Hammerheads into the Birmingham Sealife Centre in the UK.
Many of the reptile exhibits are quite large and could easily be split into two smaller enclosures (I'm not saying that's a good thing - I like the large exhibits - but from a management perspective I can see that happening).
And as far as I'm aware, there is no wax museum in Australia, certainly not Sydney at least, so will probably be an attraction for Australian tourists. Personally, I think it would be more suited to the Gold Coast, although I imagine there would be stiffer competition from the attractions there.
Hix
"...although I imagine there would be stiffer competition from the attractions there".
Stiff competition, wax museum....
Alcoves and dead space to be utilised upstairs for the transferred exhibits and sticking to theming eg tropical, semi-arid, etc, is my understanding.
Stiff competition, wax museum....
Alcoves and dead space to be utilised upstairs for the transferred exhibits and sticking to theming eg tropical, semi-arid, etc, is my understanding.
Sea Life Centre operated by Merlin are the MacDonalds of the aquarium industry a view held by many zoo professionals who unlike me will not state this publicly.
Quite a shame. SWW was an unexpected highlight--I found it more sophisticated and interesting than Taronga.
Lil Keeper
Active Member
its a shame to see SWW is going to shrink. the reptile enclosures are impressive, itll be a shame to see them go............
Please tell me this is not happening!!! I visited SWW in january this year, and I was stunned. Everything is great about it. The invertebrate area is impressive, the reptile exhibits and especially the upper level. It's an amazing experience how the exhibits are flowing into each other, and how the upper level is designed, WOW!!!
But they might be lowering their prices though, just like the sydney aquarium. And I hope that sydney aquarium will be looking a lot better than it is now, the exhibits are good, but everything surrounding it does not look like an aquarium worth paying that much money. And maybe they could have it a little bit less cramped, like melbourne aquarium. Also a good idea; shark HQ is a waste of space, they could have animal exhibits there! And please let them stop with that 'future is wild' stuff. It was an amazing program 8 years ago, but it's a bit ridiculous to present it as something new.
For the rest I say, stop Merlin now, before they turn every aquarium in an underwater equivalent of mcdonalds!
But they might be lowering their prices though, just like the sydney aquarium. And I hope that sydney aquarium will be looking a lot better than it is now, the exhibits are good, but everything surrounding it does not look like an aquarium worth paying that much money. And maybe they could have it a little bit less cramped, like melbourne aquarium. Also a good idea; shark HQ is a waste of space, they could have animal exhibits there! And please let them stop with that 'future is wild' stuff. It was an amazing program 8 years ago, but it's a bit ridiculous to present it as something new.
For the rest I say, stop Merlin now, before they turn every aquarium in an underwater equivalent of mcdonalds!
I hated that show when it first came out and I still do. This was what I really didn't like about the Sydney Aquarium (the only thing I didn't like really), that the videos playing clips were everywhere. It was incredibly annoying sitting waiting for the platypus to appear with that stupid "flish" clip playing in a continuous loop right behind me!Johnny said: