Basel Zoo

What Basel Zoo does

Basel Zoo (legal name: Zoo Basel, locally branded "Zolli") is the oldest zoo in Switzerland, founded in 1874 and operating as a private zoological institution headquartered in Basel, Basel-Stadt, Switzerland. The institution serves three primary customer segments: the general public visiting the zoo for leisure and animal experiences, schools and educational institutions participating in guided tours and learning programs, and members of the Freundeverein support association who fund the zoo through membership dues and donations. Operational activity is broad, including animal care and conservation, daily public feedings and animal experiences (including penguin walks), a multi-language (DE/EN/FR) website, on-site restaurants, and a mobile visitor app delivering real-time daily programming and weather information.

The zoo monetizes through a hybrid consumer revenue model. Ticketing is sold both online via the e-guma.ch e-commerce platform and at the physical entrance counter, with a voluntary CHF 1 nature protection surcharge that visitors can opt out of at the cashier. A secondary merchandise revenue stream is operated through an online shop at zoobasel.ch/onlineshop, and on-site dining provides additional gate-driven revenue. Marketing is multi-channel and largely organic: a newsletter, an Instagram UGC campaign built around branded hashtags (#zolli, #zoobasel, #yeszoobasel), and content marketing on the tri-lingual website. The institution is publicly recognized as a cultural asset, with kultur.bs.ch (the Basel-Stadt cultural office) listed as an "Öffentliche Förderer" (public funder) on its website, indicating an additional revenue stream from cantonal cultural subsidies.

The zoo operates from a single physical site in Basel with no subsidiaries, no disclosed parent organization, and no public stock listing. The disclosed headcount figure of 37 is inconsistent with the scale implied by a 150-year-old institutional zoo with multiple visitor services and likely represents a core/management headcount rather than total staff. No funding rounds, M&A activity, leadership changes, patents, regulatory actions, or technology acquisitions are recorded in the available data.

Name

Basel Zoo

Legal name

Zoo Basel

Website

https://zoobasel.ch

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Basel Zoo (Zoo Basel) is Switzerland's oldest zoo, founded in 1874, operating a single-site zoological park in Basel serving general public visitors, school groups, and association members through ticketing, education, dining, and merchandise.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Zoo and Wildlife Park Operations

NAICS

Zoos and Botanical Gardens (712130), Nature Parks and Other Similar Institutions (712190)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900), Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Zoo & Aquarium Parks (Ticketed Wildlife Attractions) (THAJAEAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Zoos, Aquariums & Botanical Gardens (Educational Collections) (THAJADAL), Museum, Zoo & Attraction Gift Shops (CRALAJAG)

Keywords

• Wildlife conservation
• Animal exhibits
• Zoo experiences
• Educational programs
• Family entertainment

Headquarters

HQ city

Basel

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Basel Zoo operates a zoological park offering day admissions for public visitors to view animal exhibits and attend daily feeding programs and penguin walks. It complements admissions with on-site restaurants, an online merchandise shop, and structured educational programs for schools, while operating under a Swiss association/foundation-like structure supported by ticket sales, merchandise, donations, and the Freundeverein members association.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Day Ticket Admission (Tageskarte)

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Zoo Zürich: Zoo Zürich is the largest and most-visited zoo in Switzerland, directly comparable to Basel Zoo in business model (ticketed zoological park, conservation focus, memberships, schools programming) and competing head-to-head for the Swiss leisure and inbound tourism audience.
• Zoo Leipzig: Zoo Leipzig is a large, award-winning European zoological park with comparable immersive exhibit concepts, conservation branding, and ticketed admissions. It is a useful peer for capex-intensive enclosure development and yield-per-visitor benchmarks.
• Tiergarten Schönbrunn (Vienna Zoo): Vienna Zoo is one of the world's oldest and most respected zoological parks, run as a comparable non-corporate institution with conservation, education, and ticketed-admission revenue. It is a strong European benchmark for heritage zoological park economics.
• Ouwehands Dierenpark: Ouwehands is a mid-sized European zoological park with comparable exhibit, conservation, and ticketed-admission model. It serves as a useful European peer for capex and yield benchmarks at Basel Zoo's scale.
• Pairi Daiza: Pairi Daiza is a privately operated Belgian zoological park/resort with a similar diversified revenue model (admissions, lodging, F&B, events). It is a useful peer for monetisation-per-visitor and themed-experience investment benchmarks.
• Artis Amsterdam Royal Zoo: Artis is a historic European urban zoo with comparable scale, conservation programming, and ticketed-admission model. It is a relevant peer for European heritage-zoo economics and membership yield.
• Chester Zoo: Chester Zoo is one of the UK's largest and most conservation-focused zoos, operated as a charitable trust — directly comparable to Basel Zoo's likely association/foundation structure, mission orientation, and reliance on memberships/donations alongside admissions.
• Zoo Berlin (Zoologischer Garten): Zoo Berlin is one of Europe's oldest and largest zoological parks with comparable revenue mix (admissions, memberships, conservation programs). It is a relevant peer for scale and operational benchmarking of a heritage urban zoo in a major European city.
• Tierpark Bern (Dählhölzli): Tierpark Bern is another major Swiss public zoo serving a similar urban audience with comparable offerings (animal exhibits, education, conservation, admissions). It is the most direct domestic peer to Basel Zoo and competes for the same Swiss visitor base.

Broad incumbents

• San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance: San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is a much larger global zoological/conservation organization with overlapping activities (admissions, memberships, conservation, education). It is a useful broad-incumbent benchmark for brand and conservation IP scale rather than a direct local competitor.

Market position

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/zoobasel

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Basel Zoo