Mandai Wildlife Group responds to complaints about high prices of personalised tours

Mandai Wildlife Group, which runs the Singapore Zoo, Bird Paradise, River Wonders and Night Safari attractions, has responded to complaints about its personalised tours at Singapore Zoo being priced too high with Mandai advising the tours are “more costly” to conduct.

According to Channel News Asia, online commenters said the Singapore Zoo's new ‘Incredible Invertebrates’ tour - which will start on 6th August and costs up to US$110 - was priced too high.

The new tour at the Singapore Zoo which marks the Zoo’s 50th anniversary, will allow visitors to get up close with the likes of the green bottle blue tarantula and the red-winged green giant stick insect. Visitors can even handle the invertebrates, offering them a rare glimpse of how the zoo cares for such creatures.

Delvinder Kaur, an animal care officer at Mandai Wildlife Group who helped to develop the tour, told The Straits Times the main objective is to bring visitors closer to invertebrates and educate them about their importance in the ecosystem and shared “they’ve got their own likeable points. The tour is more about showcasing invertebrates in a different light.”

Soon after the ‘Incredible Invertebrates’ tour was announced, online commentators took to social media platforms to complain about the cost. One said the prices were “insane” while several others lamented that educational tours should be subsidised or set at a “reasonable” price.

Mandai Wildlife Group responded to CNA's queries about the online feedback on the cost of the Incredible Invertebrates tour, advising that the personalised experiences offered at Singapore Zoo are operationally “more costly” to conduct given the “very high” ratio of guides to guests.

Singapore Zoo has a range of personalised tours, from ‘zookeeper for a day’ and ‘Reptopia’ experiences to private buggy or behind-the-scenes visits. ‘Reptopia’ personalised tours have the same ticket pricing as the new ‘Incredible Invertebrates’ tour.

A Mandai Wildlife Group spokesperson advised that guided wildlife experiences are curated to provide encounters beyond what is typically available during a regular visit noting "through these engaging and immersive experiences, we hope people gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of our natural world, and become advocates for wildlife."

Invertebrates are animals that do not have a backbone, and they make up 95% of all animal species. Visitors on the Singapore Zoo’s new ‘Incredible Invertebrates’ tour will be taken into a showroom that regular ticket holders do not have access to. They will have an opportunity to feed and handle various species. If that is too much outside of their comfort zone, they have the opportunity to identify butterfly eggs, instead, and try to release adult butterflies.

Image. Credit: Mandai Wildlife Group