Chester Zoo forced into embarrassing change over offensive 'child predator' tickets
Chester Zoo dropped a serious clanger while flogging tickets to a family-friendly tour of the animal park.
Brits browsing the booking page for the UK zoo's 'Predator Tour' noticed that some poorly positioned words made it sound like something it was not.
The embarrassing error has since been corrected - but social media users had already spotted the unfortunate clumsy choice of words.
Chester Zoo made the wrong impression on punters who were interested in the Predator Tour, which offers visitors the chance to get up close and personal with an array of animals.
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The 'very unique guided tour', which costs £30 per adult and £25 per child, offers animal lovers the chance to explore the zoo without the crowds and hop on an electric tour bus.
Those who want to partake in the 90-minute tour are introduced to some of the zoo’s 'most iconic animals', including Sumatran tigers and Komodo dragons.
Chester Zoo said it is 'suitable for those aged four and over'.
But somehow, the popular attraction didn't spot that the booking page featured a huge phrasing faux pas.
When listing the ticket options available for youngsters, the booking page advertised them as 'Child Predator Tour' tickets. Obviously, it doesn't take a genius to work out why this isn't a great look.
But for an unknown amount of time, it appears that the team at Chester Zoo didn't cotton on to how unsuitable this wording was.
Eagle eyed social media users spotted the mammoth mistake and shared a screenshot of the gaffe to X and Reddit, which sparked quite the conversation online.
One person described the blunder as 'staggering', while others couldn't believe that Chester Zoo apparently didn't proofread the page on their website.
Hundreds of thousands of people have now seen the posts calling out the unfortunate description of the tickets which created an unintended impression.
It appears that Chester Zoo quietly changed the wording after the online posts began to gain a lot of traction. The term 'predator' has since been removed and they are now simply described as 'Child Tour' tickets.
'Staggering' blunder
Most people managed to see the funny side of the situation, while others were just stunned that the zoo hadn't realised its mistake a lot sooner.
One person said: "Staggering. How did that get approved?"
A second laughed: "This is straight out of an episode of The Apprentice."
A third joked: "'So we're all agreed it'll be the Child Predator Tour?' Marketing team: Absolutely."
A fourth chimed in: "Really, nobody on the entire staff read this and thought, 'Hang on a minute?'"
While a fifth commented: "Not really a connotation you want when trying to sell a family day out," and another added: "This has given me such a chuckle this morning!"
Chester Zoo declined to comment when approached by LADbible.
Olivia Burke