Home
FacebookSearchMenu
  • Subscribe (free)
  • Subscribe (free)
  • News
  • Features
  • TravelInfo
  • Columns
  • Community
  • Sponsored
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Advertise
    • Send Us News

Share

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • E-mail
  • Print

Cape Town icon celebrates milestone birthday

18 Nov 2020
Comments | 0

The Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront is celebrating its 25th birthday, having welcomed more than 10 million visitors since opening for the first time on November 13, 1995.

Since then the attraction has welcomed families, tour groups and solo travellers from around the world and locally, and its popularity as an unusual venue to hold a meeting or conference, has grown. The aquarium has a bespoke conferencing venue adjoining it, plus many of the spaces inside the aquarium itself are available for gatherings, under safe conditions.

Marketing manager, Ingrid Sinclair Ingrid said the aquarium relied on visitors for funding and had made strategic partnerships enabling it to continue with its work in ocean conservation. “A recent achievement we are most proud of is the establishment of our non-profit partner organisation, the Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation, which has been mandated with growing the education, research and conservation work that we have been pioneering for the last two and a half decades.”

The aquarium’s largest exhibit is the Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Exhibit, which has been part of the aquarium since 1995 but underwent a complete refurbishment and reopened in 2017. The exhibit holds two million litres of water and is home to Ragged-tooth sharks and shoals of fish.

The I&J Ocean Exhibit opened in 2016 is the aquarium’s second-largest, holding 1,6m litres of water. A unique feature is a 10-metre-long tunnel that gives visitors the feeling of being underwater.

One of the original exhibits, the Kelp Forest Exhibit, was refurbished in 2018 and is uniquely South African and home to endemic fish.

“The Aquarium has also been extremely fortunate to enjoy great support from the larger international community. From an industry point of view, we are close to our peers in North America, Europe and Asia who, like us, consider education about, and protection of, the ocean to be a public aquarium’s core purpose,” said Ingrid. “Thanks to this purpose, international tourists – from the African continent and beyond – have consistently chosen to visit us. Over the years an average of about 45% of our visitors have been from outside of South Africa. We look forward to welcoming them back!” 

Adventure seekers can dive in all of the aquarium’s larger exhibits.

Sign up to our mailing list and get daily news headlines and weekly features directly to your inbox free.

Acsa suspends security head amid probe

Today 18:50
Comments | 0

Skytrax names fastjet among Africa’s best airlines

Sponsored
Yesterday

VFS opens UK visa centre in Zim

Today 18:35
Comments | 0

Wizz Air exits Abu Dhabi

Today 18:30
Comments | 0

QR adds loyalty subscription service

Today 18:25
Comments | 0

Feature: Green recognition for three Constance hotels

Today 18:20
Comments | 0

Nice court overturns cruise ban

Today 18:15
Comments | 0

Oceania orders two Sonata ships

Today 18:10
Comments | 0

Train travel round-up

Today 18:05
Comments | 0

Latest Changes on Travelinfo (15 Jul'25)

Today 18:00
Comments | 0

Exorbitant taxes clip African airlines' wings

Yesterday
Comments | 0

Portugal revives TAP privatisation talks

Yesterday
Comments | 0

Airlink and Turkish ink codeshare deal

Yesterday
Comments | 0
  • Load more

FeatureClick to view

ITCs and homeworkers July 2025
New products July 2025

Poll

I don't sell cruises because...
  • © Now Media
  • Privacy Policy
  • Travel News on Facebook
  • eTNW Twitter
  • Travel News RSS
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Send Us News