Ms Patten (Northern Metropolitan) — Last week I was extremely fortunate to get a tour of the Melbourne Zoo, and I met some incredible creatures there. The zoo welcomed the as yet unnamed pygmy hippo. Congratulations to his parents, Petre and Felix; both mother and baby hippo are doing very well.
Like many other innovative organisations in the Northern Metropolitan Region, Melbourne Zoo is engaging in unique and successful business practices to boost tourism to the area. I was very happy to learn about its Breakfast with the Koalas and Kangaroos event. It is a product that the zoo offers to tourists when they fly into Melbourne: before their hotel rooms are ready they can come in and have breakfast with the koalas and kangaroos and then go and check into their hotels.
Since 2014 visitation to the zoo has increased from 1.5 million to over 2 million, thanks to these types of programs. The membership program at the zoo has also been very popular. In 2010 the zoo had about 70 000 members; it now has over 250 000 members — a fantastic increase. The zoo uses the money raised for its anti-extinction programs and to work towards ensuring that no Victorian terrestrial vertebrate species goes extinct under its watch.
