Berlin Zoological Gardens Introduce Dynamic Pricing

(eap) The Berlin Zoological Gardens, which include the Berlin zoo, the animal park and the aquarium, have recently introduced variable pricing for admission tickets. Using “dynamic pricing”, ticket prices can automatically rise or fall depending on supply and demand. This has the effect that guests can make significant savings when booking in advance, while admission gets more expensive on particularly popular visiting days and counteract excessive visitor numbers. Operators can set the price influencing factors and limits individually. In the case of Berlin Zoo or Aquarium, a day ticket for adults used to cost 20 euros at the ticket office. The same ticket can now be purchased in the online store for 16 euros, depending on the respective conditions. A fixed maximum price of 25 euros will not be exceeded, as the Zoological Gardens state. The new application is based on a dynamic pricing solution from the German company HKS Systeme.

“In times of almost uncontrolled cost increases, setting admission prices is becoming increasingly challenging. Especially, when you are pursuing the important goal of continuing to provide access to people with limited budgets. The new model gives us the opportunity to cover rising costs and at the same time offer socially acceptable prices in the future,” emphasizes Maximilian Jäger, Head of Sales at Zoo, Aquarium and Tierpark Berlin.

Thomas Welzel, Head of Product Management at HKS Systeme, states: “We are delighted that we can continue to drive forward digitalization in the leisure industry with our ‘Dynamic Pricing’ product. The successful implementation at Zoo Berlin has confirmed to us that we need to make modern ticketing in leisure facilities more flexible in order to respond more specifically to the needs of visitors and operators.”

The zoological facility’s operating costs are rising not only due to the cost of caring for the more than 25,000 animals, but also due to higher energy and construction costs as well as personnel expenses for the approximately 600 employees. As part of a new official pay scale, a further pay adjustment came into force last month. Compared to last year, this is expected to lead to additional personnel costs of around 3.4 million euros at Zoo and Aquarium Berlin alone this year. Taking all costs into account, the daily operating costs for the Zoological Gardens amount to around 150,000 euros. ■