Samenvatting

Educational messages are used to raise awareness and to encourage people to participate in protecting and managing global biodiversity. The Isle of Wight Zoo is one of the zoos which recognizes the increased importance of education. The zoo wants to connect two important aspects of zoo visits: perception and education. The goal of this thesis is to find out the interests of zoo visitors of the Isle of Wight Zoo and to clarify visitors’ main motivations to visit a zoo. In this way, the research can contribute to the zoos goal: to raise visitors’ awareness regarding valuing the natural world. The research question is as follows: “Do the visitors of the Isle of Wight Zoo have a need for zoo educational messages and if so, how could this be translated to the educational programme of 2015 in a way that it encourages visitors to take part in it and helps them to value the natural world?” The research is executed by using literature studies, a survey, visitor observations, evaluations and interviews.