For the first time in over a decade, the Honolulu Zoo has increased its admission fees.
The city-approved $2 price hike to enter the 42-acre zoo in Waikiki took effect Saturday. Tickets for general admission adults are now $21, while general admission for children age 3 to 12 is $13. Likewise, the price for adult kamaaina and military residents with an ID is $10, while it will cost $6 for kamaaina and military children age 3 to 12.
Admission is free for all children age 2 and younger.
Ian Scheuring, the mayor’s deputy communications director, said the zoo’s admission fees have not increased since 2011. Rising operational costs necessitated raising ticket prices, he explained.
“The price of just about everything, from electricity and water to animal feed and maintenance materials, has gone up over the past 12 years, and the small fee increase will help offset those costs,” Scheuring said via email.
The Honolulu Zoo’s annual operating budget for fiscal year 2024, which began July 1, is nearly $8.9 million, a $1.54 million increase from the prior fiscal year, according to city reports.
The $2 increase in resident admission fees for adults and children is expected to generate $270,880 per year in additional revenue, with ticket sales for nonresidents supposedly to generate $334,606 more annually for the zoo, the city says.
The price hike follows a July 5 public hearing in which the city Department of Enterprise Services — the agency that runs the zoo — amended administrative rules to implement the new pricing schedule, according to Scheuring.
“There are no other fee increases planned at the zoo at this time,” he added.
MEANWHILE, THE Honolulu Zoo intends to hire a new concessionaire to manage and operate its food, beverage, retail and ticketing services for a 10-year period. Those services are currently run by Denver- based SSA Group, which also operates Kapahulu Market, an eatery located on the zoo’s property.
Besides the Honolulu Zoo, SSA Group says it partners with more than 70 zoos, museums, aquariums and similar venues around the country, including zoos in San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.
In addition, SSA Group handles concessions for Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, Bishop Museum, Pearl Harbor Historic Sites, the Battleship Missouri Memorial, USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park, and Waikiki Beach Center, the company’s website states.
According to Scheuring, the city’s existing concession contract with SSA Group is expiring soon.
“As the existing contract expires, the city is seeking the ability to include ticketing in the next food, beverage and retail concession contract, so that it can start to offer amenities like online ticketing purchases to Honolulu Zoo visitors,” he said.
To obtain a future vendor at the zoo, the Honolulu City Council’s Committee on Parks, Enterprise Services and Culture and the Arts voted Wednesday to advance a resolution toward full Council adoption. If approved, Resolution 134 would allow the city to issue a formal solicitation to request sealed bids from qualified entities.
Once chosen, the new concessionaire will be required to provide $25,000 or more toward capital improvements for maintenance and upgrades to the zoo, the city says.
Under Council questioning prior to the vote, Enterprise Services Deputy Director Tracy Kubota said zoo upgrades are yet to be determined.
“Right now we don’t have anything in progress as far as a contract that we are going to solicit for,” she said. “But it could be anything from improvements to the existing facilities that they utilize and equipment that they’ll need to run services. So those are things that are generic to what we may include as part of the investment.”
Kubota added the city has no fixed time frame to solicit bids for a new concessionaire.
“We are currently looking at a model for it,” she told the committee. “We can let you know when it’s going to go out, so we can be in touch at that time.”
COUNCIL MEMBER Calvin Say questioned the city’s seeming lack of a “template” to more efficiently issue a sealed bid proposal for the zoo’s next food vendor, as they might for similar vendors at city-run golf courses.
In response, Kubota said most of the city’s concession contract terms run for five years, versus the 10-year contract being sought on behalf of the zoo.
“So the template isn’t really as simple as ‘we’ll take one contract and we’ll apply it to the next,’” she said. “Each of our concessions are somewhat unique in different ways. Whereas some might need some investment in capital, some might be ready to move into and utilized easily based on the location or what had been previously occupying it.”
Kubota added there had been “challenges in finding the appropriate vendor” for these various concessions.
“So it really does depend on how and who may want to provide services,” she said.
Still, Say wondered why the city did not have a “standard template” to speed the process to gain new concessionaires.
“Easier, right? But it’s OK, just that you want to get it done as quickly as possible, that’s all,” he said.
To that end, Say noted DES’s other venue — the Neal S. Blaisdell Center — is undergoing a $43.6 million renovation project to address health, safety and deferred maintenance that will require portions of the site at 777 Ward Ave. to temporarily close through next year.
“So when you close down Blaisdell, that’s a big loss of revenues to the city also, so be aware of it,” Say told city staff. “So, if it can be done by the end of the year, great. You can generate more revenues for the City and County of Honolulu.”
At the same committee meeting, Dita Holifield, the city’s new director-designate of DES, appeared during her first week on the job. Holifield replaced Jerry Pupillo, who resigned in May.
Sworn into her new role by Mayor Rick Blangiardi on July 20, Holifield spent the past nine years as general manager of seven radio stations in Hawaii owned and operated by Salem Media Group. Since 1997, she has also managed her own live events business and is the owner of All American Rodeo, the state’s largest rodeo show, the city says.
Holifield’s official appointment is subject to confirmation by the full City Council.
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Honolulu Zoo
151 Kapahulu Ave.
Hours
Open daily, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (zoo grounds close at 4 p.m.); closed Christmas Day
Entrance fees
>> General admission adults, $21; children age 3 to 12, $13
>> Kamaaina and military adults with ID, $10; children $6
>> Children age 2 and younger, free
Information
24-hour visitor information hot line, 808-971-7171; honoluluzoo.org
