The zoo is practicing the economy in its marketing.
“All our ads talk about the value of zoo visits to families,” Director Randy Whistoff said.
Zoos say different financial attraction for consumers is that a lot of zoos around the country honor one another memberships with free or discounted entrance fee.
General entrance fee can range from $6 to more than $20 for adults and $3 to more than $15 for children depending on the zoo, but the average basic admission runs about $10 to $13 for adults and $6 to $8 for children, said Steve Feldman, spokesman for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

A lot of zoos offer higher priced “best value” entrance fee that cover parking and admission to attractions that could not be covered by general admission. At the San Diego Zoo, a one-day “best value” ticket that admits unlimited use of zoo buses and an aerial tram costs $35 for adults and $26 for children.
While the Memphis Zoo also described higher attending — up sixteen percent to more than 410,000 — the Denver Zoo and the North Carolina Zoo are tracking about as is as last year. Officials say that’s all the same good news amid continual weekend storms in Denver and concern about natural falloff from the high turnout for last year’s debut of a new elephant and rhino showing.
“We’re happy that we’re holding our own when a lot of other attractions are losing attendance,” said North Carolina Zoo spokesman Tom Gillespie. “We seem to be getting more local people staying closer to home this year.”
If on that point a downside for zoos, it possibly may be in visitors’ spending one time they arrive.
“We’ve seen a little softening on the gift side of concessions and more conservative spending on private parties and company picnics,” said Denver Zoo spokeswoman Ana Bowie. “I think people are trying to be more frugal.”