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Marine Dream: Modern technology has spawned a raft of bigger and better
aquariums that hooked an awestruck public and are reeling in huge revenues.
 The
notion that aquariums should be purely educational, aimed at teaching hordes
of school children about the wonders of marine life, is passe.
Nowadays, aquariums are big business. Take for example, the
soon-to-be-opened
Siam
Ocean World, a 1 billion baht (US$24.4 million) investment by
Australia's Oceanis Group, scheduled to open on Dec. 1 in Bangkok's newest
posh department store -- Siam Paragon -- in the heart of the capital.
Taking up 10,000m2 of space with a capacity for more than 4 million liters
of water and a planned population of 30,000 marine animals, Siam Ocean World
is already billing itself as the largest aquarium in Southeast Asia.
Aquaria KLCC, which opened in
Kuala Lumpur in August, can still claim to have Southeast Asia's longest
underwater tunnel, at 90m.
The Kuala Lumpur aquarium, which cost 1.1 billion ringgit (US$29.3 million),
is situated in a convention center connected to the capital's famed Petronas
Twin Towers. Similar to Siam Ocean World, KLCC hopes to become a prime
tourist attraction for the city.
Thailand has seen the launch of two smaller aquariums over the past two
years, including the Underwater World
Pattaya and the
Waghor Aquarium, in Prachuab Khiri Khan province.
The Pattaya aquarium reportedly involved a US$6 million investment by
Singapore's Haw Par Group. Waghor Aquarium, which got off to a bad start --
most of the fish died in the first year -- and only officially opened for
business last August, is owned by the government's Department of Unofficial
Education, and required a construction budget of 200 million baht (US$5
million).
"One of the reasons we're seeing more aquariums these days is because of
improvements in technology," said Geoff Olson, general manager for Asia of
the Oceanis Group. "Old aquariums used to have flat windows; now you can
basically create a room out of curved glass."
The Siam Ocean World aquarium, for example, will include a 270-degree
acrylic underwater tunnel leading to a 10.5m diameter room built like an
inverted fish bowl.
"So we're in the fishbowl and the animals are outside looking at us," Olson
said.
Oceanis claims to be the world's top investor-operator in aquariums. The
private company owns and operates aquariums in
Melbourne and Mooloolaba in Australia, the Chang Feng Ocean World in
Shanghai, China, and Busan Aquarium in
Busan,
South Korea.
Besides the Siam Ocean World, its largest investment to date, Oceanis is
also constructing an aquarium in
Dubai and will start
building another in
Seoul
next year.
Negotiations are underway for aquariums in
Paris,
Istanbul
and
Prague.
"A lot of the places we're going to are developing markets, except for
Paris," said Olsen. "Essentially the business model comes down to size of
population and the ability of the population to come to aquariums."
Asia, with its densely populated cities and rising incomes, was the obvious
place for Oceanis to start out.
The Bangkok aquarium, for instance, will charge a 450 baht (US$11) entry fee
for adults and 280 baht for children, with no price differential between
Thais and foreigners.
It is expected to draw at least 1.5 million visitors during it first year of
operations, of whom only 20 percent are expected to be foreigners. The
aquarium also anticipates 100,000 school children per annum.
Oceanis chose Siam Paragon as a venue because of its upscale positioning --
the department store will also include an opera house -- easy accessibility
to Bangkok's overhead sky-train system and its central location.
"Commercially, our first and foremost goal is to promote an entertaining
experience for the general public," Olsen said. "Into that, we weave
educational messages and educational experiences."
Oceanis will utilize its global connections to stock Siam Ocean World, with
grey nurse sharks imported from a breeder in South Africa, elephant-nose
sharks from Australia and penguins imported from South Korea, but the great
majority of the animals will come from Thai waters.
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