Woburn Safari Park has been celebrating a huge landmark as the park welcomed their 20 millionth visitor.
To mark the achievement, Woburn surprised the lucky guest at the park entrance with incredible prizes including a VIP Experience and Annual Tickets for the park.
Stephen Dennis from Romford in Essex, was visiting with his wife and children. The family enjoyed full VIP treatment and a fantastic selection of prizes, including a VIP Experience going off-road with Bob the Ranger in a Land Rover for a tour to meet the animals close up.
The family were personally greeted by His Grace, the Duke of Bedford on arrival and were also handed Annual Tickets for a full year of exciting visits to the Safari Park.
Later they enjoyed a delicious lunch on the veranda of The Safari Lodge with bubbly and luxury chocolates.
Linda and Stephen Dennis, and their children Paige and Joshua were thrilled.
Stephen Dennis said: “The family feel overwhelmed. I’m not normally this lucky! I wasn’t expecting this today at all, it’s quite amazing really, to be the 20 millionth person through the doors. It’s just an amazing place to come to, he said.”
"It's amazing to think we have had 20 million people come through our gates!" said The Duke of Bedford.
"We hope our special guests today enjoy their prizes and their visit to the park today. We have a great offering here at Woburn, that’s why people keep coming back, often people come as children and then years later they come back as parents with their own children. It’s a testimony to the foresight my Grandfather had, in bringing animals to Woburn and we hope we’ll still be here in another 50 years time.”
Records were originally kept on paper back when the parked opened 47 years ago in 1970, and thanks to that careful record keeping over the years (added to the computer-based data collected today) it all adds up to this huge number of people.
The landmark number was reached earlier than expected thanks to a busy Easter weekend and the park has gone from strength to strength, growing to over 500,000 visitors per year.
Guests love the expansive parkland animal reserves in the Road Safari, as they enter the home of amazing and endangered animals, including; lions, elephants, monkeys, bears, giraffe and tigers. Encounters with animals continue in the award-winning Foot Safari where visitors can watch keeper talks and demonstrations with sea lions, lemurs and penguins and many more smaller animals.
