
“We hear from guests that they feel our parks are an affordable option for visitation,” Simmons said, “and they like the fact that they are contributing to our mission to save species through their visit.” What do you think of San Diego Zoo prices? Zoo officials said ticket revenue is an important part of meeting the organization’s mission to promote conservation and eliminate species extinction - and visitors know that. That year, zoo officials first proposed charging kids to get inside, raising adult prices from $2 to $3 and setting children’s tickets at 50 cents if they were not accompanied by an adult or had a note from a teacher.īy 1983, adult tickets had climbed to $4.95 and children 3 to 15 were $1.50. Until 1977, children under 16 were admitted free. Adult tickets to zoos in Los Angeles and San Francisco are $20.Īdmission to the San Diego Zoo for children between 3 and 11 is $40, a far different pricing strategy than what the zoo relied on for decades.
Planet zoo entrance free#
is free so are the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and the Saint Louis Zoo. By comparison, the National Zoo in Washington D.C. Tickets to the San Diego Zoo cost $50 for ages 12 and up. “While San Diego Zoo Global employs a little more than 2,300 people, we estimate that San Diego County has 7,420 more jobs because of all the San Diego Zoo Global’s impacts.” “Tourists who come to San Diego primarily to visit the zoo or Safari Park spend more than $250 million at other businesses in our county,” then-taxpayer association president Sean Karafin said at the time.

The crown jewel in the city’s historic Balboa Park, the San Diego Zoo and its companion Safari Park outside Escondido attract more than 4 million visitors a year, stirring hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy every year.Īccording to a 2014 study by the zoo and the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, the zoo generated more than $870 million in economic activity for the region in the 2012 calendar year. “It’s good stewardship to be a strong organization and to be strong financially so we can move forward successfully.” Kids formerly free “We have a collection of living animals we have made a commitment to caring for throughout their lifetime,” spokeswoman Christina Simmons said. Officials from San Diego Zoo Global, as the Zoological Society of San Diego markets itself, said they rely on a healthy savings account to make sure they can meet their obligation to protect endangered and threatened animals for decades into the future.

And its admission and membership prices are, by some distance, the most expensive in the nation among public and nonprofit zoos. The zoo also benefits from a special tax approved by voters more than 80 years ago, a levy that is expected to generate $12 million this year alone. The nonprofit took in almost $30 million more than it spent last year, and $176 million above what it spent in the past five years, records show.


As of December, the zoo reported total assets of more than $545 million, including $122 million of savings and temporary cash investments. The San Diego Zoo has become one of the richest charities in the region, reeling in millions of dollars a month more than it spends. While the fledgling exhibits from 100 years past have long since given way to acres of sprawling, meticulously maintained habitat, the nonprofit organization supervising the makeover similarly has seen its fortunes soar. What started as a line of cages along Park Boulevard after the curtain closed on the Panama California Exposition a century ago has, by most any measure, grown into a world class research and tourist destination that today all but defines San Diego.
