The results, released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), showed the zoo pulled in 1,425,319 visitors, bettered only by the Tower of London of all the attractions in the UK that charge for entry.
It marked an 11% increase on 2010, partly due to investment in new animal exhibits, major events and fully refurbishing our restaurants.
Chester Zoo’s Managing Director, Barbara Smith, said:
“We know visitors are mindful of getting value for money while experiencing great quality and we have worked, and continue to work, extremely hard to offer both in abundance.
“We’ve built new exhibits and refreshed older ones and created ways to get visitors closer than ever to our animals. We’ve put on high-profile, top-quality events, invested in new marketing, new catering offerings and new retail products and the visitor numbers we achieved last year are a reflection of all of that.
“The figures are proof that we’re doing things right we’re going to do even more to make sure Chester Zoo is a fantastic family day out.”
We’re now hoping to build on the success of 2011 with a number of exciting developments and events in store for 2012.
Having recently opened the UK’s first ever underwater viewing zone for Giant Otters and spent £250,000 revamping our Jaguar House, we’re now getting set to open our biggest ever exhibition on April 1.
Dinosaurs Bite Back! will feature 19 animatronic dinosaurs from America, set in Jurassic Park-style gardens.
“We hope the animatronic dinosaurs will really capture people’s imaginations,” added Barbara. “It’s going to be a fabulous exhibition.”