Ex-situ Conservation: A Source of Revenue Generation and Visitors’ Attraction (A Study from Central Zoo, Lalitpur, Nepal)

Abstract

The Zoo is famous example of ex-situ conservation. Central Zoo is only one Zoo of Nepal having high potentiality of ecotourism but the study regarding this is very limited. Thus, this research was objectively done to assess the trend of visitor in Central Zoo from 2009 to 2019 and revenue generation, visitor’s perception about the features in the Zoo. Total 108 visitors were interviewed to collect primary data to know their perception about features and facility in the Zoo. Among this, it was about 56.48% male and 43.52% female visitor. The secondary data were collected from published and unpublished report and documents of Central Zoo. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Rating analysis was also done to know perception of visitors about different features and their satisfaction about the available facility. The highest record of visitors was 1,154,436 in 2018/2019 which was more in comparison to 1,063,217 in fiscal year 2009/2008. The highest number of visitors were Nepali Adult that was 6, 73,323 followed by Nepali Children with 2,156,352 and Nepali students and other with 1,414,961 from 2009 to 2019. The maximum revenue generated from visitors was US$124, 09, 32 in 2018/2019 while this was the lowest about US$ 5, 66,502 in 2009/2010. Similarly, most satisfied facility was sanitation of the toilet with mean score 6.5. The visitors choose the information was easily accessible in the Zoo as most important item with 6.4 score. The estimated highest coefficient of variance of revenue generation from Zoo was same 2.17 (inconsistency) in 2017/2018 but it was lowest 1.45 (consistency) in 2009/2010 which showed the variation of monthly flow of visitors. This study helps to improve the important feature of the Zoo’s such as signpost around the entrance, animals view point, and animal shelter and provision of the guide for visitors and ease of car parking and possible implication for Zoo management are discussed.