Available Business & Tourism Sessions
Click on an education session for more detail including curriculum links
Please be aware, that although sessions are FREE, Colchester Zoo reserves the right to charge a £20 fee educational sessions which are booked but not attended.
Detailed Session Descriptions:
CZS the Charity – KS4 and Higher
New for Autumn Term 2025
In February 2025, Colchester Zoo Ltd. became Colchester Zoological Society, a registered charity. This brand-new session explores the business, financial, and wider implications of this transition.
Students will examine how CZS functions as a mission-driven organisation, with discussion of business structure, governance, and financial models. Internal and external factors will also be explored through SWOT analysis and, for older students, PESTLE analysis.
This is a recent change, and we are still developing a full picture of its impact on day-to-day operations. For a deeper focus on zoo operations up to the 2024 financial year, teachers may book the ‘Zoo as a Business talk’, or for a detailed look at zoo finances, the ‘Finance talk’. Either of these can be booked alongside this session for a more comprehensive overview.
Click for curriculum topics covered
- Business structure and governance
- Stakeholders and their objectives
- Financial objectives, including not-for-profit models
- Non-commercial funding strategies (e.g. grants, donations, Gift Aid)
- Mission-driven business goals
- SWOT analysis of organisational change
- PESTLE analysis of organisational change (KS5 only)
Finance Talk – KS4 and higher
After an introduction to Colchester Zoo’s finance objectives, costs and revenue are examined. A full analysis using graphs, charts, and figures shows the difference in profits on low visitor days compared to high visitor days. The difficulties of a tourist attraction trying to balance those varying visitor numbers while remaining profitable are then explored with reference to strategies used to encourage visitors.
This session covers financial information and figures from the 2024 calendar year. From February 2025, Colchester Zoo became a charity — a change with significant financial implications. These are not covered in detail here but are explored in our new ‘CZS the Charity’ session, which can be booked alongside this talk for a more in-depth look at both areas.
Click for curriculum topics covered
- Understand the mission and value of Colchester Zoo
- Understand the financial objectives of Colchester Zoo
- Fixed and variable cost breakdown
- Direct and indirect cost breakdown
- Understand what steps we take to minimise our costs
- Explain the sources of income and how attendance is directly linked to revenue
- Understand the factors affecting attendance and what we do to compensate
- Break-even chart analysis and comparison of high and low visitor days
- Calculations of net profit margins comparing high and low visitor days
- Understand a variety of pricing strategies used, and what the aim of each is
- (KS5+ only) PESTLE analysis of Colchester Zoo to anticipate future sales
- (KS5+ only) Colchester Zoo’s Economic Impact, both locally and regionally
Marketing Talk – KS3 and higher
Students will learn what marketing is, and how we successfully market products at Colchester Zoo. The talk covers a wide range of topics including: who our target customers are, who our competitors are, various levels of products, SWOT analysis, marketing strategies, product lifecycles, and advertising. For lower level talks, all of these concepts are tied back into the marketing mix terms of price, place, product, and promotion.
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- Understand the role and mission of Colchester Zoo
- Explain why marketing is essential to Colchester Zoo’s mission
- Describe the target audience of Colchester Zoo
- Understand why knowing the target audience is essential to marketing
- Relate Colchester Zoo’s marketing methods to the marketing mix in terms of product, place, price and promotion
- Understand the SWOT analysis of Colchester Zoo
- Define marketing strategies with reference to price and product life cycles
- Describe advertising methods used by Colchester Zoo
Q & A Session – KS3 and higher
Please note this session is 45 minutes for a maximum of 50 students.
This session is a bookable timeslot for your students to ask Colchester Zoo staff questions. Zoo staff can answer questions on a wide range of topics including how we use science at Colchester Zoo, how we meet the needs of our customers, health and safety concerns of a zoo, case study examples of our conservation projects, or a focus on any other topic.
This session is ideal for students which are required to gather specific information for completing mock assessment, portfolios, workbooks, etc.
Students attending this session MUST come prepared with a list of question to ask the speaker.
Zoo as a Business – KS3 and higher
This session is designed to give students an overview of Colchester Zoo as a visitor attraction. It covers a wide range of topics including: running costs, competition, staffing and job roles, our customers, customer service, market research, our products, marketing strategies, and advertising. For lower level talks, this session provides an introduction to business concepts and terminology as they relate to Colchester Zoo.
This session covers business information and figures from the 2024 calendar year. In February 2025, Colchester Zoo became a charity — a change with major operational implications. These are not covered in detail here but are explored in our new ‘CZS the Charity’ session, which can be booked alongside this talk for a more in-depth look at both areas.
Click for curriculum topics covered
- Understand the role and mission of Colchester Zoo
- Define running costs in terms of what Colchester Zoo spends money on
- Describe job roles and responsibilities across Colchester Zoo’s 12 departments
- Understand the typical customer in terms of distance travelled, customer type, numbers, and seasonal attendance
- Describe methods used by Colchester Zoo to ensure customer satisfaction
- Understand the importance of surveys including: visitor flow analysis, dwell time analysis and animal visibility surveys
- Describe Colchester Zoo’s products
- Define marketing strategies with reference to price and product life cycles
- Describe advertising methods used by Colchester Zoo
