Ep 31 Noah's Ark Zoo Farm: An Accessible, VisitEngland Gold Award-Winning Visitor Attraction with Larry Bush

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With one in five households having someone with an impairment or disability, it is crucial for businesses in the visitor economy to prioritise accessibility. Your consideration and awareness of this market can make or break a visitor's decision to choose your business.

Supporting people with access needs has always been essential, but in recent years, more information has become available, and businesses in the visitor economy are responding more proactively than ever before.
In this episode, I talk to Larry Bush, Director of Noah's Ark Zoo Farm in North Somerset, one of the attractions that have been recognised for doing it particularly well, winning gold in the Visit England Award for Excellence for Accessibility and Inclusion.

Noah's Ark Zoo Farm welcomes over 200,000 visitors per year, including 20,000 school children. This former family-owned dairy farm has now been turned into a charity, as the Bush family appreciates that this is more than just a family business. It is now a place for the future of wildlife education, conservation, and people.
In this episode, we talk about

• Larry's journey to joining the family business in 2019, which included bringing Doritos to the UK!
• The recently achieved charitable status of Noah's Ark, why this was important to the family, and the ambitions of the charity.
• What the zoo has introduced to make it more accessible and inclusive and why this will always be an ongoing process of feedback and improvement as people's needs are vast.
• Lastly, we examine how they manage work experience at the Zoo farm and Larry's suggestions for anyone wanting to get a job at a place like theirs.

Links to Noahs Ark Farm, the businesses mentioned and the transcript.

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This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.

Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations.
They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.
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