DERBY ZOO

Derby Zoo

Derby Zoo

Introduction

Dr Joe Dimbelby, the Director of Derby Zoo turned away from his window:

'I have quite a good view of Markeaton Park and the zoo from here. You get quite a good feel for the attendance numbers just from watching the stream of people walking along the pavement. We have a huge fluctuation in daily numbers. Our busiest times are obviously weekends and the summer holidays when we regularly get attendance levels of between 4,000 and 6,000. On the Easter and August Bank Holidays we can easily reach 10,000.

We certainly need to increase our visitor numbers, but it is vital that we still provide a high quality of service; and there lies our problem. We have had all the usual market research done for us: we know the age range, group size, average length of visit, where the visitors come from, and even which newspapers they read.

We also know which animals they like best: the monkeys, big cats, elephants and penguins are always popular, but we do not really know what the public thinks of the quality of the service we provide throughout their visit. Apart from providing the animals, what are we doing right and when? If we do not know that, how can we improve and build on our successes? Marketing is all very well at getting people here, but once they are here we have to keep them and organise our operations to give them a good day out.'

Background Information of Derby Zoo

Ever since it opened in 1888, Derby Zoo has played a major part in the country's interest in natural history both as a scientific and recreational activity, and has one of the most prestigious animal collections in the world. From the start the zoo had a wide range of exotic species including Indian elephants, llamas, leopards, kangaroos, bears and numerous birds. The collection grew rapidly with the addition of an orang-utan, an Indian rhinoceros, giraffes, and chimpanzees all arriving over the first 10 years.

Visitor attendance levels have always fluctuated as fashion and public interest have increased and waned with the introduction of new exhibits and developments, or as investment declined. In the 1890s annual attendance levels exceeded 250,000, but fluctuated considerably during the early half of the 20th century. After the Second World War, attendance figures leapt to 3 million, but by the mid-50s the visitor numbers had settled back down towards their pre-war 2 million levels and remained stable for some time. In the late 1960s and early 1970s a new decline began and by 1975 attendance levels started to fall rapidly. By the early 1980s visitor levels were just over 1 million, and the budgeted 2007/8 attendance level was just 600,000.

The proportional decrease in the attendance of animal attractions was coupled with the change in the public's perception of the rights of animals, the care of animals in captivity and the effect of caging animals on their health, behaviour, and psychology. The morality, function and need of zoos was also ...