Skegness Aquarium 10th anniversary

National World

Skegness Aquarium has celebrated its 10th anniversary. Barry Robinson went along to find out more.

Transcript

00:00Ten years ago now, we opened the aquarium the first day, a big investment at the time into

00:11Skegness, you know, the first one here. Never been in an aquarium here before. This took a while to

00:17get it established, which we've done now. You know, we added the dinosaur park in COVID, which was

00:23again, a big change for the town. Took away the model village, which, you know, some people

00:28weren't happy about, but the feedback we got after that was, you know, probably for the best.

00:34A lot of kids now love to come here. It's a big part of the attraction now, this part of it, I mean,

00:40dinosaur attractions now are everywhere. I mean, it's probably near on one of the first in the

00:45country that started doing this, which has made a big difference. We've got some plans.

00:52We've just taken the land at the front, so we've got some plans for maybe some outdoor play area

00:57and then maybe a big seating area over there under those trees, just so people can dwell a little bit longer

01:03in here. Because having a walk around, you know, you can be through quite quickly.

01:07We're going to try and add a big play area out here along the front, two tiers, something like that.

01:13That will add another probably half an hour to your dwell time.

01:16Yeah. It's very educational, isn't it?

01:18It's very educational. The aim of the aquarium is to make education fun.

01:22Yeah. You know, you try not to push it on them, but learn them while you're here.

01:26So, yeah, we're always trying to...

01:28Make it more magical, I think.

01:30Make it more magical and, again, make it an all-day attraction. That's our aim.

01:34We don't want people to come in just for an hour or so. We want to hold them in for a good few hours.

01:40When the kids go out, they're tired, they're fun, they've learnt something, the parents have had a nice time.

01:46But, yeah, it takes time and money, as always, doesn't it?

01:50Yeah.

01:51So, are we going to get a sneak preview chart on what's coming, other than you've got the land at the brunt?

01:56We've got no plans at the moment. There's no plans at the moment, no.

01:59No, we've just secured the land, so, again, it takes time planning.

02:03So, it's maybe a couple of years off, but we're trying our hardest to always improve the aquarium.

02:10Yeah.

02:11But it does take time.

02:12And it'll be well worth it.

02:13It'll be well worth it in year.

02:14Yeah. I mean, we are in the dyno bit, obviously.

02:17The aquarium, I mean, I've been around it a few times with you.

02:20One of the best attractions Skeggy's seen for a long, long time.

02:24You do diving, you can teach people diving.

02:27We believe you do weddings and everything if they wanted to as well.

02:30Yeah.

02:31You know, let's get a pump in while we're here.

02:32Don't do weddings anymore.

02:33You don't?

02:34No.

02:35It was, it was, what can I say, we had two or three and it sort of fizzled out a little bit.

02:41Right.

02:42More on the experience.

02:43Yeah.

02:44The diving experience, the snorkel experience, growing year on year.

02:48I mean, we're just having a meeting about it now.

02:51It's a great experience.

02:53It's one of the only attractions in Skeggy's that brings people out of town into, you know,

02:58we have people from Scotland, we've had people from abroad come and do it.

03:02There's only two places in the country now that offer the experience.

03:07So, yeah, it's a great experience, you know, if you have a look at the reviews, the feedback's

03:12fantastic.

03:13Yeah.

03:14So, yeah, we're proud of it.

03:15We're proud of it.

03:16Again, it's grown year on year on year, you know, it sells out in no time.

03:23Yeah.

03:24The lads are great.

03:25It's just, yeah, it's just an all around great experience.

03:46We're sending another little picture in there, aren't we?

03:48Yeah, why not?

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