Case study – Commercial recovery from COVID-19

After a turbulent 2020 – with the various UK lockdowns and restrictions – 2021 began with cautious anticipation of what was to come. Within the first few days of January, the country was again plunged into another national lockdown, which meant we were unable to open and welcome visitors to the zoo. We had plans in place ready to manage a further lockdown and our team responded well – pulling together as one and doing whatever was needed of them.

Just over three months later, we were finally able to reopen the zoo on 12 April – enabling us to reconnect with our visitors and to start to generate the vital income we now desperately needed. Initially, the restrictions in place meant that we could only allow a certain number of people into the zoo at any one time, and strict cleaning and social distancing measures were once again in place. This was operationally challenging but we knew how important it was that we played our part in keeping everyone safe.

As restrictions started to ease in May, and lift further in July, it was clear that there was a desire – even a need – from our members and visitors to reconnect with each other and to the zoo. In August, we welcomed record visitor numbers, driven by this spirit of people wanting to connect with real experiences and supported by a boom in UK holidays (or ‘staycations’) – with international travel restrictions still in place.

While our income was impacted by the long period of closure, we still achieved some significant milestones in 2021, which aided our recovery. Ending the year with just over 1.6 million visitors (compared to 1.2 million in 2020 and 2.1 million in 2019) was an incredible achievement that would have seemed unattainable at the start of the year. Our members played a huge role in supporting us yet again – by the end of the year, they had reached over 130,000 in number (2020: 120,539) – providing us with a stable level of income that’s so vital for our continued sustainability. Day visitors returned in numbers close to those seen in 2019, which was a record year for us. Finally, in 2021 our annual Christmas event, The Lanterns, welcomed the highest number of visitors ever.

We were delighted that this recovery saw us ranked as the third most visited attraction in the UK in 2021 by ALVA and we were proud to receive both the Large Visitor Attraction of the Year and Resilience and Innovation awards at the Marketing Cheshire Annual Awards.

Most of our visitors now book their tickets online – a digital shift that has been accelerated by the pandemic. While this helps us manage numbers and connect with visitors through our digital communications, it has impacted the likelihood of visitors donating to us when buying tickets, and has therefore had a significant impact on voluntary income and the levels of Gift Aid we are able to claim.

Our retail operations had a record year, supported by the levels of day visitors and the relaunch of our online shop. While food & beverage operations have not beaten previous records, due to restrictions on restaurant capacity throughout the year, the amount our visitors spent each time did increase. All the money generated from these commercial operations is ploughed back into the zoo.

Looking forward to 2022, we are mindful that there are a number of cost pressures heading our way. Most notably, staffing costs (driven by increases to the national living wage), utility costs and the costs of goods and materials will have an impact, and will need to be factored into our pricing. The team are focused on ensuring a visit to Chester Zoo remains great value for money, and are continually looking to find ways of developing the visitor experience and generating income to support our mission of preventing extinction as we continue our recovery.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Our commercial recovery from COVID-19 supports SDG 8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth)