Zoo hopes to draw more young kids with new exhibits
JULY 27, 2004
Zoo hopes to draw more young kids with new exhibits.
Videos, touch screens, displays with bite-size info at 13 hot spots aimed at under-12s
By Glenys Sim
THE signboards in front of the Singapore Zoo's white tigers, offering information about these beautiful South-east Asian predators, will soon be removed.
In their place from next month will be a mini-exhibition area with videos, touch screens, panel boards and displays to give an insight into the rare creatures.
These will offer bite-size pieces of information about their life in the wild and why they are becoming extinct.
They will also display samples of the various tiger parts that are traded illegally, give examples of the sounds they make to indicate their moods and tell how to interpret their tail movements, among other things.
Similarly-styled exhibitions will be put up at a dozen of the zoo's most popular animal enclosures, as part of an effort by the park to appeal to children under 12 years old, considered the attraction's main customers.
Marketing and communications director Fanny Lai said: 'A lot of the displays and information panels will be at a height these youngsters, who are 1.2m and below, can see easily.'
The strategy marks an effort by the zoo's parent company, Wildlife Reserves Singapore, to put behind it two tumultuous years filled with management changes, a turnover in staff and Sars, which happened after the zoo, Night Safari and Jurong BirdPark were integrated under the Wildlife Reserves umbrella in August 2000 by the parks' owner, Temasek Holdings.
Two chief executive officers have come and gone since. This year alone, more than 100 employees have left as a result of redundancies, voluntary retrenchments and resignations.
The company is now being run by its executive chairman, Mr Robert Kwan, who brought McDonald's to Singapore. He assumed the position on Jan 1.
Ms Lai, who also joined Wildlife Reserves on Jan 1, said that the zoo's new 'learning' approach is the first major initiative that will be rolled out by the new team.
It also has plans for new exhibits at the bird park by year-end.
One of these is a glass enclosure that will allow visitors to watch pelicans catching fish underwater.
Meanwhile, it has overhauled the parks' in-house magazine and website, packing them with more games and dramatic pictures, and making them more colourful. It is also looking for new food and beverage partners.
It hopes to be able to draw at least three million visitors to the three parks in the financial year ending March 31 next year. So far, 750,000 have dropped by.
Ms Lai would not disclose the company's revenue for April to June this year, but said that it was 'more than double' that of the same period last year, when the tourism industry was hit by Sars.
Its total revenue in the financial year 2002/2003 was $49.9 million.
Eventually, Wildlife Reserves hopes to market the parks as venues for meetings and conventions.
'We have enough meetings facilities to accommodate groups of between 50 and 600.
'They've been there for almost three decades, but we've never really told people about this,' said Ms Lai.
'We even have a full-fledged banquet team to cater these events.'
By the end of next month, the company will be offering wedding packages starting at $699 at the bird park and zoo.
That price will cover an eight-course Chinese dinner for 10 with free flow of soft drinks and Chinese tea, wedding cake and flowers.
The bride and groom will also be given a pair of mandarin ducks to release into the lake for good luck if they hold the event at the bird park, or, if it's at the zoo, a ride in a horse carriage or on an elephant.
Over the last four years, about 20 couples have solemnised their marriages at one of the parks.
Lawyers Karnan Thirupathy and Johanna Tan were one of them.
Said Mr Karnan: 'We wanted people to remember the wedding and figured that it would be more remarkable having it in the zoo than in some expensive hotel.'
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