A new visitor record has been set for a second straight year at the BC Wildlife Park.

Speaking on NL Newsday, general manager Glenn Grant says the fiscal year ends on Jan. 31 but says a new record has already been set.

“We’re on target now, with only six more days of being open, we’ll surpass 120,000 visitors. I don’t know where it came from but it’s really, really wonderful. Our previous record was 105,000 which we set last year. So the whole year far exceeded all of our expectations,” Grant says.

“We had no smoke really through the summer, we had a great summer concert with your sister station at New Country 103.1. All the events we did, going back to the springtime with Easter which really starts our big events, was terrific. Overall the year had been wonderful, we’ve had great support from the City of Kamloops. Both in terms of visitation and financial donations.”

Meanwhile, Grant says Wildlights had 22,606 visitors over the holidays, which he says is the largest guest count for that event since 2005.

He says the park is anticipating about 105,000 visitors again for the 2020-21 fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the park is also adding mini golf as an amenity this year.

“We had a very nice donation to go towards animal habitat improvements. And what we did with that, is said if we spend it all, you can fix the fence. The fence is done, but your money’s gone,” Grant says. “If we do a mini golf that will generate revenue, we can take all the proceeds from that activity and put it into animal habitat improvements for years to come. Overall it’s a better investment to do it that way, and to have something new for guests to enjoy.”

He says the park will also be improving aesthetics in the park this year, with extra revenues from a record-setting year of attendance going towards projects like paving.