The National Zoological Gardens of South Africa is an animal-based tourist attraction that needs to offer a competitive product in order to remain relevant and to meet its various mandates. Functioning within the experience economy it strives to stage experiences that satisfy the motivations and expectations of its visitors. The study aimed at determining who visits the zoo, what motivates them to visit the zoo as well as what their expectations are and whether the zoo meets their needs in this regard. It also aimed at determining whether or not different demographic groups had different needs and whether their specific needs were being met. The study employed two self-administered questionnaires, using convenience sampling, whereby visitors entering and leaving the zoo where requested to complete the questionnaires. The data was analysed using SAS 9.2 programme and a further G-Test for goodness of fit was performed to determined dependency between race demographic and response. A total of 572 entry questionnaires and 293 exit questionnaires were completed. The two largest demographic groups that visit the zoo are white and black visitors who responded as a relatively homogeneous group. It was concluded that there were not responses in these two groups that indicated dependency between race and response. For the smaller demographic groups some of responses indicated a dependency between race and response but these form a small component of the zoo’s visitors. A high revisit and referral intention are good indicators of visitor satisfaction with 279 indicating their intention to revisit and 277 to recommend the zoo to family and friends. This study emphasises the importance of understanding the motivations, expectations and satisfaction of demographic groups as part of effective experience management. / Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Tourism Management / unrestricted