Zoo ready for million visitors as ‘panda-monium’ grows

HUGE excitement has surrounded the prospect of Scotland boasting two giant pandas since The Scotsman revealed plans to bring them to Edinburgh Zoo in May 2008.

Officials from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland had just returned from a secret visit to China, where they signed a “letter of intent” pledging an initial commitment to take the iconic animals.

Their arrival is expected to trigger a huge surge in visitors at the attraction, virtually doubling the annual figure to more than a million.

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At present, only 2 per cent of Edinburgh’s European tourists go to the zoo – instead heading to historic attractions such as Edinburgh Castle – and most of its revenue comes from Scottish visitors. But zoo officials believe the arrival of the pandas will change that completely.

Edinburgh Zoo would become one of only a handful of zoos in the western hemisphere, and the only one in the UK, to care for giant pandas. It will join the four zoos in North America that currently house them, with others in Mexico City, Berlin, Vienna and Madrid.

There are still fewer than 2,000 giant pandas in the world – about 200 of them in captivity.

The pandas are likely to stay in Edinburgh for only four or five years, but Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce has estimated the economic spin-off could be as high as £100 million.