No monkey business as Safari Park is all set for a record-breaker
Jul 23 2008 by Richard Down, Liverpool Daily Post
ONE of Merseyside’s leading attractions is defying poor weather and an economic down-turn by reporting record figures for the first half of the year.
Knowsley Safari Park says it has bucked tourism and leisure industry trends by achieving a 6% increase in visitors for the six months to the end of June.
If business continues at this level for the remainder of 2008, the attraction will easily top last year’s record of 523,000 visitors and achieve its best annual figures since 1972, the first full year it was open for business.
Park bosses say that, in the light of difficult trading conditions, they are delighted with this performance.
General manager David Ross said: “Having had to contend with very mixed weather at Easter, ever-rising fuel prices and the so-called credit crunch this rise in visitor figures is a remarkable achievement.
“This is especially true as the feedback we’ve been getting from colleagues at other attractions is that some of them are finding the going very tough this season.”
Mr Ross also pointed out that there is evidence that customers are becoming more cost-conscious and that some may even be cutting back on holidays in favour of days out closer to home.
Sales of season tickets – which allow people to make as many visits to the Safari Park as they want over a 12 month period – are up a massive 26% this year.
The Safari Park chief believes that one of the key factors in the increase in visitor numbers has been the attraction’s new TV advertising campaign, featuring its infamous baboons, which was unveiled in The Daily Post in March. The advert shows what happens when a military vehicle is used to try to get the better of the inhabitants of the monkey jungle, while also extolling the virtues of the car-friendly route around the outside of the baboon enclosure.
Predictably, the armoured personnel carrier is trashed by the 140-strong troop of baboons, and the soldiers inside are forced to abandon their mission.
The park believes this has clearly caught the imagination of visitors who have been buying large amounts of merchandise linked to the campaign featuring slogans such as “We dared – we survived” and “We’ve been babooned”.
Mr Ross said: “Surveys have consistently shown that, of all our exhibits, the baboons are seen by visitors as having by far the biggest wow factor which is why we made them the stars of the new TV advert.
“The feedback we have had on the campaign has been incredibly positive, which suggests that it has made a very important contribution to these record half-year figures.”
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