Volume 3, No. 7. April 11, 2003
Full immersion
The Florida Aquarium
in Tampa is selling swimwear in its gift shop now. The aquarium is taking advantage
of impulse shopping.
That impulse has come from the new Swim With The Fishes program which allows
up to four people ages 6 and up to SCUBA “dive” into the 500,000-gallon
(1,893,000-liter) Coral Reef Gallery tank. Accompanied by two certified divers,
the participants wear a small SCUBA Tank, regulator and floatation device that
keeps them on the water surface but able to breath with their face down among
angel fish, parrot fish, grouper, snapper, jacks, tarpon, blacktip shark and
moray eel. Guests need only provide a swimsuit and towel—now available
at the aquarium gift shop.
“Tourists who are coming in are watching the kids do this, and they run
out and get a bathing suit and come back to sign up for a (later) session,”
said Sue Ellen Richardson, director of marketing and public relations for the
Florida Aquarium. But while they can now get a swimsuit at the aquarium, they
can’t always get a slot in another session. “Once we started getting
the word out our demand quickly started overriding our supply,” Richardson
said. “Our phone is going absolutely bonkers. We are booked pretty solid
for months. What a cool problem.”
Swim With The Fishes, which began March 1, grew out of another program the aquarium
launched in January, Dive with Sharks. that allows a 30-minute dive by certified
divers into the aquarium’s Shark Bay exhibit. Run in pairs at $150 per
person and accompanied by two aquarium divers, the Dives with Sharks are scheduled
three times a day Friday through Sunday. The program has earned national media
attention. “We have people planning vacations around it,” Richardson
said. But the family program has proved the bigger catch, selling out even though
the aquarium has spent no money marketing it.
Currently the aquarium only runs the 60-minute Swim With The Fishes three times
a day on weekends, but Richardson said the staff is trying to work out a way
to expand it. “There’s logistics we have to answer, such as staff
availability and activity in the tank.” At $50 per person, it makes enough
to cover costs “and just a tad” profit, Richardson said.
It is, however, fulfilling the aquarium’s mission in a big way. “If
you can turn one guest on to the wonders of our environment and they gain a
healthy respect for it, you’ve done a good job,” Richardson said.
“And if you turn them on to an incredible experience that’s a lot
of fun, you’ve hit a home run.” Often, whole families book the swim
together, and the aquarium has had grandparents don the SCUBA gear for the experience.
“You’ve got that element of the unknown with animals, and now you’ve
got another element, watching children experience these things,” Richardson
said.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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