Not ideal, hope they have a plan to get through this. Adelaide Zoo $24m in debt - ABC Adelaide - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Does not surprise me one little bit. Personally as an Adelaide Zoo-goer, I feel the pandas were a waste of time and money. I think once everyone saw the pandas once, they realised how boring they usually are.
Koalas sleep more than pandas, and lions sleep alot too, but that doesn't stop them being popular. Just wait until they breed the pandas, zoo attendances will skyrocket. Hix
As far as I know you cannot train pandas to jump through hoops and the like. Breeding...! Even the Chinese have difficulty breeding pandas (properly). Edinburgh beware...
Somebody must be pulling somebody's leg about this! The Federal Government pays the Chinese Government $1million a year for the Pandas. The South Australian Government paid $18.9million for a new entrance, fencing and conference centre for Adelaide Zoo to capitalise on the boring beasts. Visitation at the zoo is up by 70%. Zoo membership is up by 25% And still the zoo is $24million in debt???????????????? How much were they in debt before they started spending money on Giant Pandas?
Attendances have skyrocketed 70% already and they are $24million in debt. Baby Pandas might send them completely broke!
Haha. I assume that a zoo is run like any other for-profit organisation, where the aim is to make a profit to re-invest in the business, or at worse, to break even. If the zoo is in so much debt, maybe it is because they borrowed money to invest in expansion and improvement, in the hope that they would become profitable again in the next few years. It sounds like their efforts have been working if membership and visitor numbers have increased so much. So maybe what we are seeing isn't such a big deal after all, and they will be in the black in a couple years, as forecast?
Yes - I think that the crucial [but missing] piece of information is the level of debt before they started spending money on Giant Pandas.
That's one piece. But there's heaps more to know before trying to assess whether this is even a problem. What is the gearing ratio? What is the forecast interest liability? Is the organisation's cash flow sufficient to meet liabilities if they fall due (in other words - are they solvent)? Does the debt only arise from capital works, or have they borrowed to pay operational costs? Debt is not, prima facie, a problem.
That is a huge increase in admission price over a 7 year period. I know that Adelaide has made some major improvements in that time, but a 110% jump in price when inflation over the period was about 19% is massive.
I rember back when it would cost me, a child, $8 to get in, and my parents $14 each. Since then, it has mor ethan doubled for both of these! I think the price of the zoo increased by $10 or so when the pandas came along, otherwise the price was still alright.
I admit that I have not paid attention to the cost of zoo entry since I bought my wife a life membership years go - we get in for free to both Adelaide and Monarto zoos. However, I do feel that by pricing entry too high, they not only limit potential visitor numbers, they also are doing the community a disservice by not giving more people the opportunity to be exposed to the conservation messages that are such a powerful educational tool for zoos. I level the same criticisms about zoos in Sydney - they are just too expensive for most families.
Maybe there should be 3 pricing structures: one for locals, one for Aussies, and one for international visitors.
There are two issues to that. Tourists would that was not fair and not bother going, and the second issue is, how can you tell quickly and certainly (so not holding up the lines to get in). Unfortunately Adelaide Zoo has moved from being the nice, clean zoo with a great collection of mammals, birds etc, to a collection that has lost half of its diversity because of two pandas (this change has been because under Chris West I believe).
Maybe have at least one person in the party show a form of ID? I need to do this every time I flash my FOTZ card, but I am usually held up in the queue by people fumbling to find their wallets, and asking questions about the price anyway. If the present price remains the same for tourists (and the price for locals/Aussie is reduced), the tourists will just accept it for what it is. I have been to a few establishments overseas and experienced that and couldn't be bothered by the price difference really.
