Fota Wildlife Park’s visitor income down 15% last year

Overall visitor income to Fota Wildlife Park in Co Cork fell 15 per cent from €5.6 million in 2019 to €4.7 million last year as the Covid-19 pandemic forced it to close its doors for three months.

In its latest set of accounts filed with the companies office, which cover the 12 months ended December 31st, 2020, the park said the year began “very well” with its highest visitor numbers for the month of January since it opened in 1983.

However, the pandemic forced the park to close to the public from March 20th until May 20th.

During the same period in 2019, the wildlife park experienced the highest visitation levels in its history, with almost 8,000 people visiting the park on the Easter Monday bank holiday on April 22nd.

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The total number of visitors to the park for 2020 was 384,901 compared with 462,047 visitors for 2019 – a reduction of 16.7 per cent.

Visitor numbers from June to September last year were higher than in 2018 and 2019, with both months setting monthly records.

Despite the challenging times, the park recorded a surplus for the financial year of €691,750, which was up from €454,533 the year before.

This was partly achieved through cost-cutting measures and payroll reductions, assisted by the State’s temporary wage subsidy scheme and the employment wage subsidy scheme.

‘Moral responsibility’

Furthermore, the park received a financial contribution of €550,000 from the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the State. This direct funding ensured it could maintain its animal operations and conservation projects for the early part of 2021 until it was safe to reopen.

The park said it had a “unique moral and statutory responsibility” to maintain care for thousands of animals, including many endangered species. This meant it could not simply “switch off the lights, close the gates and work from home”.

“It is simply not possible to furlough a giraffe, a rhino or even a lemur,” it said. “Therefore, the wildlife park when closed to the public due to pandemic restrictions had considerable ongoing running costs.”

These included the maintenance of animal enclosures, the parklands and its buildings, as well as wages, heat and lighting, and the provision of food.

Visitors

“As visitor-related income accounts for 95 per cent of the wildlife park’s funding, the Covid-19 lockdown and closure of the wildlife park resulted in almost zero income at the normally high-visitor-income period during Easter.”

Despite reopening on May 20th, public health measures resulted in a reduction in the number of visitors, as well as a further decrease in income.

The number of foreign tourists during July and August in 2019 constituted 16 per cent of the total visitors. In 2020, this fell to 5 per cent. The park said this was compensated by staycation visitors, many of whom stayed in local hotels.

The park opened an hour earlier and an hour later during July and August so it could increase the number of visitors on site during the day without going above restricted visitor numbers within the park at any one time.