Report reveals drop in visitors to Edinburgh Zoo

THEY were once the rock stars of Edinburgh Zoo, with crowds queuing round the block in the hope of getting just a glimpse of the elusive creatures.

Edinburgh Zoo's pandas have seen a decline in visitor numbers due to last summer's wet weather, Picture: Ian Georgeson

But now it appears the giant pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang, who arrived at the zoo with great fanfare from China in 2011, may have lost a chunk of their fan-base.

An annual tourism survey released today reveals Scotland’s top ten paid for and free entry visitor attractions show the number of people going to the zoo dropped by almost ten per cent over the past year.

However, the zoo has defended the pandas, saying poor weather last year was a major factor which put visitors off the attraction.

It is the only destination in the top ten paid attractions seeing a decline in visitor numbers, according to figures from Glasgow Caledonian University’s Moffat Centre for travel and tourism business development

Last year the zoo welcomed 519,281 visitors whereas in 2016 the visitor count was 574,175 – a 9.6 per cent decline.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland said it was largely an outdoor attraction and this played a role in its rankings in the 
report.

She said: “Unlike the other most popular paid-for attractions in Scotland, Edinburgh Zoo is predominantly an outdoor experience so our visitor numbers last year were undoubtedly affected by one of the wettest summers on record.

“We are therefore hoping for better weather this year and during holiday seasons in particular, when we expect visits to see our wonderful array of animals to be highest.

“It is important to emphasise that the figures in this report do not include other exciting zoo events, such as our Dreamnight, Zoo Nights and the Giant Lanterns of China, which took our total number of visitors in 2017 beyond 560,000.

“Given the very poor weather we experienced, this was a real achievement and one we look forward to building on this year.”

Will Travers, president of animal charity Born Free, said the panda project diverted resources from conservation.

He added: “For several years now, the public has been whipped into a frenzy by Edinburgh Zoo’s speculation that its ‘rent-a-pandas’ have successfully bred.

“However, the ‘panda-­monium’ seems to be over and the fall in visitor numbers at the zoo may be the people’s way of saying enough is enough.

“Born Free has consistently maintained that the panda project at Edinburgh is shockingly expensive, of little conservation value and deflects time and resources away from effective wildlife conservation in the wild.”

The report highlighted Edinburgh as host to the two top paid and free entry attractions – Edinburgh Castle and the National Museum of Scotland (NMS). Both welcomed more than two million visitors for the first time.

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