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[Curlytop]

What's the Deal?

The Eden Project is inviting it’s visitors to support the charity, via the government’s Gift Aid scheme which encourages environmental attractions to give visitors annual admission for the daily entry price. This means that for £13.80 an adult can get back into Eden free for the year. Tickets for students in full time education are £7, children 5-15 cost £5 and children under 5 are free. Seniors (60+) entry is £10.

Unfortunately this offer is not open to those who do not pay UK tax but Eden is making the same offer for free entry for the year for a £3 donation to the Eden Trust on top of the daily entry price.

All you need to do is fill in a quick form with your name and address on arrival.

More MoneySaving for the Cornish!

As a thank you for those that live in Cornwall the Eden project has cut admission prices to £5 between Monday 27 March and 30 June. This will also allow you free entry to the project for the rest of the year. All you need to do is bring some photo ID and proof of Cornish residency.

Back to the original post....

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The Eden project is 5 years old today, and for residents of cornwall it has cut admissions to £5 between March 27 and June 30. If you visit under this offer then entry will be free for a whole year afterwards!
Some ID required. Take a look at www.edenproject.com/484_6246.htm for details.

[waster]

I think this is discrimination. The project was funded from lottery money so why should one section of the community be afforded discounted entry?

If every area of the country did this for their lottery funded projects there would be dual admission criteria everywhere. Not a sensible move IMO.

[koru]

On the other hand, it will encourage local residents to bring visitors to Eden. My mother in law lives there and ends up visiting Eden many times per year. I'll bet she is responsible for bringing 10-20 visitors per year, all paying full fees. This is a smart move by Eden.

[Nicholas]

Bit of a bummer if you live in Plymouth like me. In fact, I'm probably closer to Eden than Penzance!!!!!

[lyndachidell]

I live in Cornwall and have watched Eden grow. It was not only lottery money that funded Eden, but other (and local) sources of funding too. I have to say that we have used similary year long passports (though not previously as cheap) to take countless visitors to the place, and each family taken has paid a whacking entry fee. Last year my OH took nine families - the passport scheme for locals menat that he only had to pay once. Believe me, nice though Eden is, no-one in their right minds would want to visit it nine times in one year unless they had visitors to entertain!

[edda]

Do you qualify for a year's free entry if you pay (or part pay) with Nectar vouchers?

[flogit]

Eden are obviously getting desperate by this scheme - I heard they are losing millions because the biomes are leaking, plants are dying and as a result they are laying off staff. Problem is that it's not worth seeing again, seeing it once a year is more than enough.

The fact that the Cornish are meant to be grateful for Eden letting us in cheaper is ridiculous and quite simply a con. Tim Smit bagged the objective one funding, local council funding, lottery funding and anything else he could get his hands on for what is in essence a private enterprise. That money could have gone to local schemes supporting local people which is what objective one funding is meant to be about.

I quite agree with the previous poster saying that it is discrimination too - quite right, the lottery funding should mean that everyone is entitled to cheaper entry. But I wouldn't bother if I were you. Interestingly enough, if you were a county council employee you used to be able to get in totally free (teachers etc.) - ummmm, not any longer! Kept that quiet didn't he!

[stikkiniki]

I do understand that some may feel eden is discriminating fro locals, however why not offer discretionary rates for one of the poorest areas in the UK which has continued to support this wonderful project despite their lack of affluence. I personally have only been able to afford to visit 3 times & this offer now means I can go again & watch as it progresses. After all I offer cut rates to people on low incomes for my health services......good on 'em.

[gingerman]

Ok, I've never actually been to the Eden project, but I've heard a lot about it (and seen the photo's) from a few of my family and TBH they seem to be doing a good thing.
So they are offering locals cheaper entry, they can't give it away can they, especially if they are "apparently" losing money! They seem to be doing better than they were though - http://www.edenproject.com/484_6230.htm. As for "the money could have gone to... supporting local people" - they employ a good number of them!
Jeez, why do people in this country think that they are entitled to everything for free!!!!!!!!
It's a fascinating project which I hope will continue.
Oh, and I will be going at the end of April, so I will then see for myself.

[malcolmwilliamson]

As someone who is going to Cornwall (I live in Herts)this Summer and planning to visit the Eden Project I queried the fairness of the £5 entry fee for Cornish residents in great detail.
In my e-mail to the Eden Project
I pointed out that they had lottery (i.e.national) funding and that their corporate sponsers were also national.
I mentioned that not all Cornish people are poor; not all poor people live in Cornwall.
I suggested the locals were getting big advantages already. If you read the Eden Project website it explains what a big boost it is to the local economy (jobs, local suppliers etc).
I said that I hadn't visited any other attraction that discriminated in favour of locals.
I ended by suggesting they were breaking their charitable status terms (all profits have to be ploughed back into the project)by charging locals at less than the cost price and hence using entry fees from others to subsidise these reductions. I asked if the Charity commission had vetted and agreed the £5 for locals.
Eden Project's reply, from their Marketing Director,contained these responses.( Since I've cut and pasted;the spelling mistakes, are his not mine! )
Upfront I have to say that the Cornwal for a fiver thing isnt going to go away...even though its only been up and running for 2 hours!!! To those points
Corporate sponsors" we actuallyu have very few "sponsors" in the
traditional way...having preferred to develop "partnership "relationships" with
many nationally, internationally and in county. That's why you see hardly any
logos at eden and certainly not something like the "Tesco biome".

...it is a funny old county in terms of money. Very low worked for incomes but pockets of out and out wealth...dining at Steins all the time! Other than means testiing we have no way of wheedling out the rich from the poor...we just know that there are more of the latter and will have to live with some abuse from the former. As I said earlier yes this is about those who cant afford to come and see us but it is also a thankyou to all classes in the county.

You will not pay that money (£13.80)for 1 entry as if you can GiftAid your
admission/donation every ticket from 10am today wil be an ANNUAL ticket...if for
some reason you cannot GiftAid a£3 donation to the Trust will gain the smame
benefit just as the old passport scheme used to work. We are deperate for
EVERYBODY (not just the locals) to engage with our work on a regualr basis hence
this new system.

There are many places which offer good deals...indeed freebies... Often using a straight "mile radius" from site validity...many cathedrals do this...though
probably don't shout about it. We DO offer concessions to UB40's, carers of the less abled get in free and so on.(cyclists and walkers too) We may not be
cutting edge here but we're pretty damned good.

The excessive reduction was simply a grand gesture based on our 5th
birthday...5...and designed to be significant; sadly it is that inbuilt
significance that you baulk at. You are right the average breakeven entry charge is nearer £7 but as you will understand the mathematics are not quite as simple as that...its a complicated economic model. I do not know whether my "project would fold if we charged everyone £5"...the strategy of pricing and its cause and effect is such a very inexact science. We're probably looking at a temporary adjustment to that model of 10% over 3 months. It will indeed be intereting to see what does happen. Your maths also fails to take into account secondary spend (retail catering etc) ...actually currently running ahead of ticket income...just. And it also forgets seasonality...I could easily argue back that it is our local support that helps keep the place open for everyone during the winter months so that we can survive full stop! There is a complex economic mix going on here which believe me we did study long and hard before entering into the fiver thing. With luck it will reward the locals, get us to see more of them more of the time, get them to better understand what we are all about

Dave Meneer
Marketing Director

[koru]

I say give them a break. This isn't a normal commercial tourist attraction like Madame Tussauds or Legoland. This is a charity that is working incredibly hard to impart an ecological message. (See www.edenproject.com/5636_5644.htm)

I know this site is about money saving, but I think we should be directing our efforts at not letting big profit-making corporations rip us off, rather than quibbling about how much a charity charges for admission. They need to maximise their gate revenue, in order to continue to operate and expand the Project.

Even at full price it is fantastic value. £13.80 is what you pay to see a 90 minute film at a cinema in London. At Eden, you get a full day for that price, and there is so much to see that you need a full day. It costs way less than Legoland, Alton Towers, etc.

[tigerlily]

Hmmmm, so some are basically saying that Eden has no right do make decisions of its own????? I live in Cornwall and have been to Eden once, when they were building the place.....no plants, just mud and alot of inspired planning the site. That was the last time I could afford to go. Yet time and time again I have found myself snarled up in the traffic from people heading there, I am thankful for this offer. At least I will be able to go and see this place which so many (from "over the river") take for granted, and its nice that the Eden team want to say a thank-you for the support given by locals and for any inconvenience caused by the site. Theres nothing stopping ANY other attraction anywhere else in the country from doing the same....well, maybe just greed!!

[Gemmzie]

Sorry, but discrimination is rubbish. Cornwall has some of the lowest paid wages in the county, one of the highest retirement rates so I think that it is perfectly fair.

And to be quite honest, holiday makers come down and use up all the water, leading to our huge bills for locals, for nothing so you can pay the extra money to an organisation helping to look after the environment.

[Sassy Student]

I'm a cornish chick, and i've been to eden a few times (to the Eden sesions which are fantastic and also on a few school trips - in one the kids started to eat the plants.. but thats another story)

Lots of places offer discounts to locals, expecially major attractions like Eden. I know for a fact that the residents of Florida recieve chunky discounts on most of the theme parks.

As locals we are the ones who will visit when its dark and cold and rainy, when all the tourists have !!!!!!ed back off (over the river!). Why shouldnt they 'reward' us for being loyal?

[tigerlily]

Well I went, got in for a fiver (after showing my driving licence card thingy with my picture and addy on it) and then got my free passport so I can go back as much as I want over the next year for free. A big thank-you from me!!

[Nicholas]

Originally Posted by Sassy Student

As locals we are the ones who will visit when its dark and cold and rainy, when all the tourists have !!!!!!ed back off (over the river!). Why shouldnt they 'reward' us for being loyal?

Excuse me, but I live "just over the river", and I have been down 5 times in the last year (paid the full £15 for my passport).

As a lot of the Cornish come over the river for our jobs, I think Plymouth could have been included in the offer. After all, we are closer to the Eden Project than the Cornish that live in Penzance.