Britain’s largest aquarium has reopened and is banking on a staycation summer bringing a visitor surge after losing £2m during the Covid lockdowns.
Plymouth’s National Marine Aquarium (NMA) and even though numbers were limited to about 1,100 a day, it still saw 2,500 people come through its doors in the first four days.
That was a welcome sign that the attraction, at Coxside, will soon regain its popularity with the public after having to shut for nine of the past 14 months due to pandemic restrictions.
The NMA, run by the Ocean Conservation Trust charity, has had to rely on Government support and borrowing to make up for the £2m it lost in revenue during the lockdowns.
It was able to avoid redundancies among its 62 full-time-equivalent staff, although still has some on furlough, and was also in position to continue with its important learning and conservation work by doing this online.
Chief executive Roger Maslin, who has been in charge at the NMA for more than four years now, stressed that the business was financially stable and looking forward to continuing its mission to help the marine environment, despite the monetary hit.
It will restart valuable corporate and party bookings, and reopen a children’s soft-play area, as soon as Covid restrictions allow. There are also plans to restart boat trips in Plymouth Sound with new routes taking visitors to Drake’s Island.
But Mr Maslin said it is key that visitors return in numbers to the waterfront aquarium to see its array of marine life, including a new octopus arrival, and it attracts something like the 280,000 that toured the attraction in 2019.
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“It’s nice to be back,” he said, “and hearing the excited voices of children, and adults, around the building. We are still opening on a restricted basis, with a capacity of about 1,100 a day, but we could increase that a little and hope to do that from June 21 and eventually get back to normal.
“We had about 2,500 people in the first four days. There is a bit of pent-up demand and, also, there is something wonderful about seeing beautiful creatures, we have all missed that. The South West is going to be busy this summer and hopefully we will have our fair share of those additional people."
Mr Maslin said the as it came the month after “the best February for a decade”.
With it costing about £8,500 a day to maintain the NMA and its animals the loss of revenue hurt and Mr Maslin said: “We lost just over £2m in revenue over the 14 months, but were able to balance that with loans and generous support from the Government.
“We’ll have to pay that money back, but they would not have loaned it to us if we couldn’t pay it back. We did a restructure in 2018 and the results in 2019 were good and there is confidence because we were a viable business before the pandemic and have the management and trustees to take difficult decisions if they need to.
“So we had to use a lot of resources and borrow, but we can bounce back but we do need holiday makers and visitors in similar numbers to what we had, going forward.
“We have about 270,000 a year, but we were up to 280,000 in 2019/20, and there is no reason why we can’t exceed that with more people being in the South West.”
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The NMA has introduced changes to its tickets and here are now three types depending on when people want to visit: Saver, Standard and Peak.
All tickets come with a free year pass to the aquarium, child tickets are always half the price of adult tickets, senior tickets are always £2 less than adult tickets and student tickets are always £5 cheaper than adult tickets.
People who live in a PL Postcode, are now able to purchase a Locals Pass meaning they always pay the Saver ticket price.
Mr Maslin said: “We have been able to adjust, to be more family and child focussed, which will help encourage people to come and visit us.”
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And Mr Maslin said the NMA is looking forward to the recommencement of events though “cautious about public feeling” post-pandemic.
“But people are already booking for Christmas parties,” he said, and added that boat trips could begin after the June 21 roadmap easing, saying: “The long-term aim would be for every school child in Plymouth to get onto Drake’s Island.”
The NMA is continuing with its important conservation efforts and has just taken part in a Government survey of 8,500 people in England and Wales with the purpose of finding out how much they know about the marine environment, and use this as a benchmark for future green interventions.
And the aquarium will continue to be used as a “connection aid” to enthuse the public about the marine world and conservation, with the NMA particularly proud of its work on planting sea grass beds in the Sound recently.
And it will continue to work with schools, another important project which saw about 100 schools send a total of 30,000 children to the NMA each year.