Wellington Zoo Wellington Attractions to Merge?

zooboy28 · 16 May 2012

Council-driven attempt to merge Wellington Zoo & Zealandia, as well as the botanical gardens and another piece of bush, in order to save the 'struggling' sanctuary:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-pos...627379/Shared-management-could-save-Zealandia

Zealandia, Wellington Zoo, the Botanical Gardens and Otari Wilton's Bush could be managed by one organisation in a bid to save the financially stricken sanctuary.

The Zealandia Working Group has recommended the attractions be grouped under a new council-controlled organisation, to be called Nature Wellington, in a report to be presented to the Wellington City Council next week.

The Karori Sanctuary Trust last year asked Wellington City Council to provide $950,000 a year in each of the next three years. The council has already provided funding of about $10.7m based on projected visitor figures that have never been met.

According to the new report the attractions would not be amalgamated, instead each would be maintained as separate operations retaining their unique identities.

"The strategic alignment of these operations is expected to provide opportunities in areas of destination marketing, optimising marketing spend, cross-selling, fund raising, education and research, optimising the use of facilities and visitor experience.

''The single governance and management model will generate material cost savings that reduce the levels of potential funding required from council.''

The working group was established by the council's strategy and policy committee to review the sanctuary's request for funding.

The council's draft long term plan does not include any funding for Zealandia.

The committee agreed this month that funding was dependent on its future governance structure being accepted and confirmed by council.

The working group came up with four options:

Place the operations of the sanctuary into the council's parks and gardens business unit, which would cost the council $1.6m over the next three years.
Group attractions into one council controlled organisation, the preferred option, which would require the council to provide grants of $1.3m over the next three years.
Create a single shared management team and common trustees for the sanctuary and the zoo which would needs grants of $1.3m over the next three years.
Make the sanctuary a council controlled organisation which would cost $2.8m

Ad Feedback Councillors will decide whether to accept the preferred option next week and allow consultation on it alongside the long-term plan.

The working group consists of councillors Justin Lester, Helene Ritchie and Simon Marsh, mayor Celia Wade-Brown and council controlled organisations performance subcommittee chairman Alan Isaac.

Background

For many years, the council has provided funding to the sanctuary totalling nearly $18m, including $7.6m in grants.

The Sanctuary recently completed a new visitor centre at Zealandia, funded from a range of sources but principally from a $6.5m grant from central Government and a $10.4m non interest bearing loan from Wellington City Council.

Since the opening of the visitor centre in April 2010, the visitor numbers and admission revenues have been significantly lower than forecasts.

The investment in the visitor centre was intended to provide the financial base to secure the sanctuary's conservation and bio-diversity work and it was expected to be financially self-sufficient.

However, the investment in the visitor centre has created a situation that without significant financial support the sanctuary will be insolvent in the near future and as a consequence the conservation and bio-diversity outcomes will be threatened and potentially lost.

What happens next

The working party paper will be initially considered by Councillors at Strategy and Policy Committee (SPC) on Tuesday 27 March.

The recommendations from the SPC will go to a Council meeting on the 3 April.

Once the recommendations are agreed to by the Council, they will go out for public consultation.

The consultation process, which runs in parallel with the Long Term Plan (LTP), will take four weeks.

The council will make a final decision in June.
Click to expand...

zooboy28 · 16 May 2012

Sanctuary Responds

Catherine Isaac : Zealandia and zoo poles apart | Stuff.co.nz

OPINION: It is good that Wellington City Council has put its preferred option for the future management of Zealandia out for public consultation.

It is most unfortunate, however, that The Dominion Post entered the debate with an editorial (Sanctuary trust must face reality March 29) that lacks perspective.

It is quite wrong to suggest the trust expects the council to "perpetually serve as an ATM machine". Zealandia is the only major council-partnered attraction that is striving to cover its own costs, and it is well on the way to achieving that.

Its funding request is for $700,000 - not $950,000 - for each of the next three years, reducing steadily thereafter.

The visitor centre concept was to help fund the conservation project and extend the visitor and educational experience. This is hardly revolutionary. Other attractions - like Te Papa and the zoo - have similar revenue-generating activities to help cover operating costs.

The difference is that Zealandia was expected to be self-supporting, even in its first year of operations. The business case for the centre, with its ambitious forecast visitor numbers, was developed in partnership with the council, who voted unanimously for it.

No-one, of course, predicted the global financial crisis or the earthquakes which depressed the economy and took such a toll on international and local tourism just as the centre opened.

Despite that, the visitor centre has not failed nor is it "bleeding money", as the editorial states. Notwithstanding the economic climate, visitors to the sanctuary increased by 42 per cent in the centre's first year of operation, and the centre is making a positive cash contribution to the conservation and education work.

International visitors have grown by 35 per cent in the past seven months, reflecting Zealandia's growing brand presence in international markets. Overseas visitors and media consistently rate it as a 'must-see' attraction. The model is working, just not as quickly as predicted.

The trust did not simply look to the council for a solution: it worked hard to close the gap with new marketing initiatives: Sirocco's (kakapo) visit, the takahe release, a baby tuatara nursery, a free shuttle from the city, free guided tours and ranger talks, extended opening hours, the hosting of 26 weddings, among others.

As a result the shortfall has reduced. Zealandia's ask has accordingly reduced to $700,000 for the next three years, just $100,000 more than it would cost the council to manage the land, which it owns, without the fence, animals or buildings.

BY CONTRAST, the zoo, while undoubtedly an asset to the city, has never been expected to fund itself. It is not economically sustainable.

The zoo is asking for a further $59 million of ratepayers' money over the next 10 years. Its annual grant this year is $2.8 million.

Ratepayers pay $14 per visitor to the zoo, compared with 43 cents per visitor to Zealandia.

Inevitably questions of public good arise. Do ratepayers really get that much more benefit from the zoo than they do from Zealandia, whose 'products' in the form of tui and kaka spill over into the city's gardens?

The editorial also rightly sings the praises of Otari Wilton's Bush and the Botanic Gardens, both also destined to merge with the zoo. In fact both organisations oppose this, and neither sees any potential synergies or savings to be made.

As the editorial notes, the proposal is also anathema to many of the 450 Zealandia volunteers who currently care for the sanctuary, whose time is worth about $900,000 a year. If, as the editorial suggests, the council takes over tending the valley, it would also bear that additional cost.

Volunteer time is but one of the huge donations made to Zealandia.

Over the last 17 years we've raised $16 million (not including council funding). In the past year, we've raised $400,000 and pared costs back to the bone. Staff and managers are all 'hands-on', with a strong volunteerism ethos. It is hard to imagine how a council- controlled organisation would fare running a community project of this nature.

So where are the savings to be made from the proposed 'super' CCO and what do these organisations really have in common? Your article suggests Zealandia could grow visitor numbers by using the "zoo's marketing know- how and database". In fact Zealandia and the zoo could hardly be more different, in terms of target markets, products, supporters, objectives, culture and relevance to Wellington's reputation as an 'eco-friendly' city.

The Zealandia vision, once thought barely credible, is now being proposed as a national vision, as described in the final lecture of our trustee, the late Sir Paul Callaghan. It is difficult indeed to see how the council's proposal to merge Zealandia with the zoo could either support and advance that vision or set the sanctuary on a sustainable economic footing.

Catherine Isaac is the chairwoman of the Karori Sanctuary Trust.
Click to expand...

zooboy28 · 16 May 2012

Zoo likes the idea...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/6866216/Should-Wellys-nature-attractions-join-forces

Wellington's nature attractions are divided over whether they should join forces.

Moves to amalgamate Wellington Zoo, Zealandia, the Botanic Gardens and Otari-Wilton's Bush into an "eco-city" under the city council's control have seen the organisations scrambling to get their supporters to submit on the proposal.

But while the zoo is calling for people to support the Wellington City Council proposal, Zealandia has taken the opposite view, and is calling on its supporters to lobby in favour of the status quo.

The proposal to create a council-controlled eco-city organisation would cost ratepayers $1.3 million over three years. The intention is that the amalgamation would create "synergies" and cost savings.

The plan was prompted by ongoing funding requests from the sanctuary for $950,000 for each of the next three years.

The option is being consulted along with the council's draft long-term community plan.

Wellington Zoo chief executive Karen Fifield said she supported the option, and the zoo was calling on its supporters to submit in favour of it.

The proposal offered chances for the four organisations to work together to help promote biodiversity in the region, she said. "It offers fantastic synergies."

Many would be at a higher management level, opening up funds and time for other projects.

"We already work at some level with the other organisations anyway ... you can start to get some economies of scale around fundraising and joint memberships, for example."

However, any eco-city organisation would have to be approached carefully to make sure it worked, she said.

"I actually think it's very workable – it needs to be done well, it needs to be done considerately, and it needs to be done collaboratively."

However, the other three organisations are less welcoming of the idea.

Zealandia chief executive Nancy McIntosh-Ward said the sanctuary agreed with the idea of working with the other organisations – and already did – but there was no need to "add another layer of bureaucracy" to that.

The sanctuary was actually asking for less from the council than it had before the new visitor centre was built, she said.

"We are doing better, but we're not there unfortunately, in terms of the numbers not being there due to the economic environment."

Visitor levels were improving, and as the numbers continued to grow the sanctuary would be less reliant on the council, she said.

Friends of the Wellington Botanic Gardens president Frank Wilson also questioned the need for a joint organisation, saying the free-access gardens had little in common with attractions people had to pay for.

"I don't think we really fit into an organisation that has a commercial purpose."

The Otari-Wilton's Bush Trust Board also rejects the proposal as "deeply flawed", saying free organisations like the Botanic Gardens and the bush should not be put in with pay-entry attractions.

Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said the eco-city proposal had stirred up a lot of debate.

The goal was to make sure the organisations were supported to ensure they can all continue to protect Wellington's biodiversity.

"Wellington's biodiversity needs a partnership between all the organisations and volunteers involved. The question is, how formal is that partnership?" she said.

Free transport brings visitors to sanctuary

More international visitors are making their way to Zealandia but fewer locals are joining them.

New figures for the sanctuary show the number of "trade-sourced international visitors" for the nine months to March 2012 has grown 71 per cent to 4735, from 2767 in the same period the year before. Trade-sourced visitors are those referred to Zealandia through tourism operators working in partnership with the sanctuary.

Total international visitors grew 28 per cent to 16,720 while domestic visitors dropped 4 per cent to 9372.

Zealandia chief executive Nancy McIntosh-Ward said the international numbers had been helped through initiatives such as a free shuttle from the city and cable car.

"It's been very effective in removing the perceived transport obstacle independent travellers face. We are very much a part of city life here in Wellington and well served by public transportation, but an on-board survey shows 60 per cent of our 6800 passengers till the end of March wouldn't have made it to Zealandia without the free shuttle service." Despite the improvement, the numbers are still well below target.

The sanctuary needs to get 157,000 visitors a year to fund depreciation and pay off a loan from Wellington City Council that helped fund its visitor centre.

Ms McIntosh-Ward said the numbers were still a way off the target, but they were very proud of the growth they had achieved, because the targets had proved to be over-optimistic in the current economic environment.
Click to expand...

Hix · 16 May 2012

I sincerely hope Zealandia is able to find it's financial footing on it's pwn, as it is a fantastic place and needs to be promoted more. It is a large area of New Zealand bush only 10 minutes drive (or less) from the Wellington CBD, with lots of NZ rarities flying free.

Its educational and conservational value is different from the zoo, but no less important. Indeed, it could be argued that Zealandia's education and conservation programs are more valuable/higher priority than the Zoo's programs because Zealandia is focusing on native species, a group in which the zoo is sadly deficient.

I agree with joint initiatives between the different organisations - joint/reciprocal memberships, collaborative projects etc. - but in the preferred proposal (council managing all four as a merged group) the smaller parks run the risk of losing their identity, and also losing out on fuinding as the zoo will always have the greater ongoing expenses.

I would remind everyone that I am in Australia and my opinion is based on my visit to both facilities six months ago. However, I am not familiar with the politics or bureacracies of the Zoo, Zealandia or Wellington City Council.

Hix

Chlidonias · 25 Jun 2012

Wellington Eco-City plan dumped - environment | Stuff.co.nz

14 June 2012

A move to unite four Wellington destinations has been dumped.

Wellington City Council's strategy and policy committee yesterday voted unanimously to ditch a proposal that would have united Zealandia, the Zoo, the Botanic Garden and Otari-Wilton's Bush into an Eco-City organisation.

But the financially stretched Zealandia will now work in partnership with the council.

Councillors are finalising their long-term plan, and the committee's recommendations will be considered by the full council this month.

In the first major decision since the council meeting started on Tuesday, councillors agreed with public feedback that the Eco-City model was not the right fit for the four organisations.

It had been suggested as a solution to concerns about the financial sustainability of the Karori sanctuary.

Instead, councillors voted in favour of a "partnership model" where the council would provide back office support and an interim board would be appointed while a full governance review was carried out.

Zealandia had asked for $700,000 in funding each year. Next year it would receive $350,000 after the governance structured was decided, and $700,000 each year after.

The council also funds $650,000 a year in interest on a $10.4 million loan to the sanctuary. On Tuesday, council business improvement manager Mike Scott told councillors Zealandia was "moving from childhood to adolescence".

"We need to be there as a guiding hand to allow that transition in a much more measured way."

During debate yesterday, councillors said the new model would enable the sanctuary to continue its ecological work, while reaching a viable financial position.

Stephanie Cook said it was important not to let financial concerns about Zealandia overshadow its conservation achievements.

"I can't put a price on the joy of seeing a flock of kaka flying across the sky when I'm walking my dog."

Ray Ahipene-Mercer agreed, and said the new arrangement would ensure the council could address problems as they arose.

"We will no longer be waiting to hear about problems, we will be identifying them and acting on them straight away."

Zealandia had slammed the Eco-City proposal, saying that the sanctuary had struggled to meet overly optimistic visitor numbers, but was performing well.

Chairwoman Catherine Isaac welcomed yesterday's decision.

The long-term plan debate will continue today.
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

Wellington Zoo Wellington Attractions to Merge?

zooboy28 Well-Known Member

zooboy28 Well-Known Member

zooboy28 Well-Known Member

Hix Wildlife Enthusiast and Lover of Islands 15+ year member Premium Member

Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

Log in or Sign up

Wellington Zoo Wellington Attractions to Merge?

zooboy28 Well-Known Member

zooboy28 Well-Known Member

zooboy28 Well-Known Member

Hix Wildlife Enthusiast and Lover of Islands 15+ year member Premium Member

Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

Useful Searches