After visiting thoughts

Motivators of demand of a River Safari visitor

  

Historic significance and nature reserve

Amongst the collection of marine animals in the park lies a collection of marine animals that has been around since prehistoric times, such as the Alligator snapping turtle, and the alligator gar which has been around for 100 million years. Visitors who are curious of creatures that were in the same era, or even before the dinosaurs' era looked like and what their diet consists of could come down to the park to see the marine creatures themselves and learn more about them. 

Many of these prehistoric animals are endangered or threatened of extinction, hence visitors may be motivated to come to the park and learn about the creatures and see them before it is too late.

Also, as the park is a nature reserve, nature or wildlife lovers who are keen to know more of the conserving efforts of the park could come down to the park and learn about the park. 

New experiences and sensations

The park offers a range of new experiences that visitors could experience, besides seeing the animals up close from their exhibit area. There are sessions held to allow visitors to see the animals up close and personal, with the sessions ranging from free to a price tag attached to it.
 At the boat entrance, free meet and greet sessions with some of the animals such as the hedgehog and hornbill occurs almost everyday, with the exemption to weather and health of the animal. 
On the other hand, premium priced sessions with the Giant Pandas in the morning allows visitors to come up close and personal with the well-loved bears and prepare their breakfast. 
Hence, the park offers a range of new experiences for the needs of different visitors, be it whether they are just seeking to know more about the animals, meeting their favorite animal or learning facts of animals they never knew exists. 
New sensations the park offers includes a Touch Pool which has a collection of sea stars, horseshoe crabs and sea cucumbers, and even baby stingrays. Visitors are allowed to touch the creatures at the Touch Pool, and this allows visitors, especially children to satisfy their curiosity of how a starfish or stingray feels like. 
Such experiences and sensations do not occur everyday unless one is staying or working at the park themselves, hence the opportunity to do so may motivate visitors to make a trip to River Safari. 

Opportunity to buy particular types of food and souvenirs 

The park carries a range of souvenirs from T-shirts to stuffed toys and even stationary made after the image of the animals in the park. Enthusiasts who are keen to collect or own the souvenirs may be motivated to go to the park to satisfy their wants. 

Also, food that is unique and only available at the park such as the panda paus at Mama Panda Kitchen, too may be a motivator to visitors to visit the park. 

Education

Enriched with information about the various marine animals, their habits, eating and behavioural patterns makes the park a conducive and educational environment for both students and anyone else to learn more about the animals. Situated in the outdoors with fauna and transparent exhibition areas, children will be interested to see the animals and both parents and teachers would be able to teach the children more about the marine animals. Students and other visitors who are keen and interested to know more about the collection of animals or are in the midst of research could also visit the park to satisfy their curiosity or collect more of the data and information they need. 

Three Challenges facing River Safari

1. Long-term sustainability 

As River Safari is only partially funded by the local government for certain activities, most of the activities and operating costs is to be sourced by the park themselves. As such, ticketing prices are used to cover operating costs, with most of the other sources of revenue such as through the sale of food and merchandise in the food and retail outlets. The park also relies on sponsorships and donations made by both individuals and organisations. As such, if the park is unable to manage their finances well and plan for long-term financial inputs, the park may face a problem of sustainability in the future. Besides the costs in running the park daily, other costs such as maintenance of the parks and conservation efforts too requires money and time to be spent. 

2. Appeal to local visitors and returning visitors

Compared to other attractions, for example the butterfly park in Sentosa which also involves wildlife, River Safari is located in a further distance and visitors, especially locals may find no value in visiting the park. Most locals have already visited the park once and have the thought that the park is still the same and will hence not want to return to visit again, or feel that the park does not appeal to them compared to Singapore Zoo or Night Safari as River Safari is the youngest amongst the 4 wildlife parks too. 
As such, the park may have to constantly come up with new events and introduce new programmes that will keep locals, a large percentage of the visitor numbers returning or visiting the park. 
That said, if the park is unable to constantly upgrade and increase its appeal to local visitors, the park may be forgotten after awhile, or tagged as a place for learning journeys for students. 

3. Competition

With the creation of more wildlife parks both locally and internationally, River Safari faces the threat of competition. Even though competition will always exist, but River Safari will be challenged as compared to the parks surrounding it such as Night Safari and the Singapore Zoo, River Safari is smaller in size and not much changes can be made to its amenities and design due to the limited space. The creation of more similar exhibits, for example SEA aquarium in Singapore also has a huge observatory tank of marine animals will further increase the competition with River Safari. Unable to change much of its amentities or introduce new exhibition zones, River Safari will be challenged to combat the problem besides coming up with themed exhibitions and new programmes.