New Zooguidebooks

Although 12,000 guidebook sales to 2 million visitors is a pretty low take-up, surely it should be possible to make some profit on these numbers?

Admittedly, Berlin's guidebooks are incredibly detailed and always up to date so they must take a fair bit of time and effort to produce (sadly, the same can't be said of many other zoos).
 
The other thing to consider is that if - as Bib Fortuna says - no new Zoo Berlin guide has been issued since 2009, the key figure to look at would be the number of sales in the first year the guide was released; if the guide has been the same for 5 years there *would* be a drop-off in sales by now!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
The other thing to consider is that if - as Bib Fortuna says - no new Zoo Berlin guide has been issued since 2009, the key figure to look at would be the number of sales in the first year the guide was released; if the guide has been the same for 5 years there *would* be a drop-off in sales by now!
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2009 was the last of the annual guides.

They've published two German editions, an English edition and an aquarium guide since then.
 
Whipsnade Update

Visited the zoo this week. They are still selling the 2012 guide with Cheetah on front cover and do not expect the 2013(!) guide to be on sale at the zoo until Easter. By all accounts, there will be little change in content so probably waiting until 2012 stocks are exhausted.

The ZSL website shows a Whipsnade guide (2013?) featuring an elephant with a knotted trunk on cover, supposedly available by post from their shop. Has anyone received this one yet?
 
Mrhinuk said:
The ZSL website shows a Whipsnade guide (2013?) featuring an elephant with a knotted trunk on cover, supposedly available by post from their shop. Has anyone received this one yet?
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I purchased the elephant guide when I visited Whipsnade in August last year, but when I returned in December they were selling the 2012 edition (Cheetah) again. I presume they ran out of the 2013 edition but still had some 2012 guides left over.
 
Rob,

Thanks. You are better informed than the staff in the zoo shop! Like you, I purchased the 2013 late last year, but at a reduced price of £1.

I have sent off to ZSL online shop for the "elephant" 2013 guide. Will update forum when 2014 version becomes available at the zoo.
 
London Zoo is now selling not one but two new guides.

The conventional guide is a whole new edition, after eight different editions of the previous incarnation. It features a squirrel monkey on the front cover, and is, as might be expected, high on style, low on depth. It manages to make two reasonably embarrassing gaffes: a picture of a rockhopper penguin purporting to be a Humboldt (they do at least have both species in the collection), and a three-toed sloth appearing instead of the resident two-toed.

Not a terrible guide, but not brilliant either - and a step back from the previous version, which did at least have a pleasing awareness of the zoo's heritage.

The second guide is a children's thing. Given the vacuity of the main version, I'm not sure that a children's guide is strictly necessary, although one can but hope that subsequent adult editions may be liberated to not treat their readers as if they had the attention-span of a toddler who's ODed on orange squash. This features a tiger on the front cover, and is "packed" with "cool stickers" and "cute postcards". It is "not for adults" apparently. It is all rather exhausting.

Each guide is priced at a rather enthusiastic £6 - or £10 for a pair.

Meanwhile, Wingham have also produced a new guide, their second. It is truly hideous in its design.


robmv said:
Although 12,000 guidebook sales to 2 million visitors is a pretty low take-up, surely it should be possible to make some profit on these numbers?
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I've only just noticed this comment, posted earlier this year by Rob. I'd have said that 12,000 sales was a pretty good figure - especially as the bulk of those 2 million visitors will be returners rather than 'new' visitors (see discussion of German attendance figures, Zoochat passim). The place doesn't exactly thrust guides at its visitors, either....

If a guidebook is seen as a Good Thing - and I think it should be, for both educational and marketing reasons - there are surely ways to raise the circulation. Having the person on the ticket booth on a generous bonus for each guide sold would be a start....
 
Other UK collections that have released new guidebooks so far this year include:

Woburn (Tiger cover) - a free copy is now given away with each paid admission. Otherwise they are £5 to buy

Cotswold Wildlife Park (Crowned Sifaka cover) - £3 per copy

Hawk Conservancy Trust (Tawny Owl in flight cover) - price unknown

When visiting Bristol recently I was informed on asking that a new guidebook is/was in the pipeline for them. However it wasn't then available. So if anyone does go and can report back on it's situation then it would appreciated
 
@sooty mangabey

Not many yet :

Leipzig-Flamingo Cover-only german version yet
Darmstadt-Zebra-the first guide since 1998
Rostock-first guidebook ( excellent one)to the Darwineum, but only in german available.

I don't know, if Hodenhagen has a new one.They have their 40th Anniversary this year and I know, they do have a small booklet about the history, but for unknow reasons,I've got no response to several asks by e-mail for a new Guidebook. Maybe I give them a phonecall.

Stukenbrock has published every two years a new edition, so this year they could produce a new one, and Springe,Walsrode,Rostock and Lüneburger Heide told me to publish a new guidebook this year.

Erfurt,Stuttgart,Munich and Berlin got new directors in 2014-so let's see, in they publish guidebooks or not-in the case of Berlin, I'm not very optimistic.Last week I've ask the Tierpark by mail , if they will have a new guidebook or not, but they it don't know at this time.Maybe the gerenuk edition was the last one...

In the case of Stuttgart, I belive in new guidebooks-they are a good seller there. Don't ask me, why people in Stuttgart buy it and why not in Berlin...

The Frankfurt Guidebook 2010 is completly sold out, but they don't know also, if they will produce a new edition.

Thats the current situation in germany.I give updates here, if I know more details.
 
It's an update of the 2007 Edition-they removed the Ring Bound, it has a new map, two pages of the history of the zoo and and they updated the pages with the animal inventory, but the cover is the same...
 
Two 2014 Guidebooks for Duisburg Zoo, one excellent,88 page Guide to the Dolphinarium and another one,50 Pages Guide" 20 Years of Koala Welfare"with everthing you wanted to know about Koalas at Duisburg Zoo-both gudies are highyl recommended.

West Midlands has also a new Guidebook-Cheetah cover.

Any more new Uk-Guidebooks ?Maybe to some Aquariums like Plymouth or Blue Planet Aquarium or Deep Seaworld ?
 
sooty mangabey said:
London Zoo is now selling not one but two new guides.

The conventional guide is a whole new edition, after eight different editions of the previous incarnation. It features a squirrel monkey on the front cover, and is, as might be expected, high on style, low on depth. It manages to make two reasonably embarrassing gaffes: a picture of a rockhopper penguin purporting to be a Humboldt (they do at least have both species in the collection), and a three-toed sloth appearing instead of the resident two-toed.

Not a terrible guide, but not brilliant either - and a step back from the previous version, which did at least have a pleasing awareness of the zoo's heritage.

The second guide is a children's thing. Given the vacuity of the main version, I'm not sure that a children's guide is strictly necessary, although one can but hope that subsequent adult editions may be liberated to not treat their readers as if they had the attention-span of a toddler who's ODed on orange squash. This features a tiger on the front cover, and is "packed" with "cool stickers" and "cute postcards". It is "not for adults" apparently. It is all rather exhausting.

Each guide is priced at a rather enthusiastic £6 - or £10 for a pair.
Click to expand...

Worth noting that when I visited in August, although the same guides were onsale they are now £7 each, and no discount for the pair! Needless to say, I only bought the one, and that only because I was (falsely) told it was the only way to get a map!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Worth noting that when I visited in August, although the same guides were onsale they are now £7 each, and no discount for the pair! Needless to say, I only bought the one, and that only because I was (falsely) told it was the only way to get a map!
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Perhaps the map is enclosed in the adult version only, and not the one you bought.Seriously, is the map available elsewhere apart from the guidebook?
 
Animal Friendly said:
Perhaps the map is enclosed in the adult version only, and not the one you bought.Seriously, is the map available elsewhere apart from the guidebook?
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I *did* buy the adult one :p I'm not that young! Already posted about my experience at London elsewhere so I will just quote that in.

TeaLovingDave said:
Beats my recent experience at London; when I asked for a map on entry I was told I had to buy one of the £7 guidebooks (quite a price hike from last time I went!) in order to get a map...... and then when I did indeed buy the guidebook I found that as well as the map built into the guidebook, there was a leaflet-format map slotted into the guide, which I saw being handed out for free elsewhere in the zoo.
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By "elsewhere in the zoo", incidentally, I mean the public information point next to the Aquarium.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
I *did* buy the adult one :p I'm not that young! Already posted about my experience at London elsewhere so I will just quote that in.



By "elsewhere in the zoo", incidentally, I mean the public information point next to the Aquarium.
Click to expand...

So to clarify, you were told that the map was only available in the guide book, when in actual fact the map is available free of charge at the information kiosk next to the aquarium?
 
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