Case Study

Cashless operations, without leaving cash visitors behind.

How Taronga Zoo used Ludo cash kiosks and sustainable wooden payment cards to keep cash acceptance inside a digital payment flow, without PVC cards or cash at every outlet.

Taronga Zoo
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Zero PVC
wooden card materials
Cash to digital
cash kiosk loading
365 days
year-round venue operations
Taronga Zoo cafe payment experience
Taronga Zoo cafe payment experience

Context

Taronga is a permanent attraction with cafe, retail, ticketing, school holiday, quiet weekday, and conservation-led brand decisions.

Operating problem

The venue needed to keep cashless operations moving while still letting visitors spend cash, without putting cash handling back into every outlet.

Ludo deployment

Ludo paired cash kiosks with sustainable wooden payment cards so visitors could load cash once and tap to pay across the venue.

Hard result

Cash became digital spend without PVC cards, while the venue kept a payment flow suitable for 365-day operations.

Reusable lesson

For parks and attractions, payments have to respect access, operations, and venue values at the same time.

Context: a permanent attraction, not a pop-up event.

Taronga needed payment infrastructure for everyday trade, school holiday peaks, and conservation-led brand choices.

Context: a permanent attraction, not a pop-up event.
Permanent venue operations, not a temporary event window
Cafe, retail, and ticketing counters operating across the year
A conservation brand where payment materials mattered

Operating problem: cash still mattered.

The venue wanted the operating benefits of cashless payments without excluding visitors who arrived with cash.

Operating problem: cash still mattered.
Keep cash acceptance available without cash at every outlet
Reduce manual cash handling for front-line teams
Avoid plastic credentials that conflicted with venue values

Ludo deployment: cash kiosks plus wooden cards.

The Ludo deployment turned cash into a tap-to-pay flow while keeping the visitor credential aligned with Taronga values.

Ludo deployment: cash kiosks plus wooden cards.
Visitors collect a wooden card on arrival
Cash kiosks load and activate the card
Visitors tap to pay at food and retail outlets across the venue
Tickets can be purchased with cash through the kiosk flow

Hard result: cash became digital without PVC.

Visitors could still use cash, venue outlets could still run digital payments, and the card itself avoided PVC compounds.

Hard result: cash became digital without PVC.
Wooden outer casing with no PVC compounds or plastics
Copper wired antenna and chip module
Synthetic rubber adhesive from natural glue
Screen printing with UV cured ink and natural oil coating
Built for year-round reliability rather than seasonal resets

Reusable lesson: values are part of the payment rail.

For permanent attractions, payment design has to satisfy visitor access, operator control, and the venue story at once.

Reusable lesson: values are part of the payment rail.
Accessibility is part of payment design
Credentials can carry venue values, not just balances
The same cash-supported digital pattern fits parks, zoos, and attractions
Taronga Zoo wooden payment card presented in a green folder
Taronga Zoo

Taronga kept cash-supported payments inside a digital flow, without PVC card materials or cash handling at every outlet.

“This week we went live with an absolute monster of a project that I’ve been chipping away at for the past 12 months. The challenge: how can Taronga Zoo continue its cashless operations, while still allowing customers to spend in cash? And how can we do this sustainably?”

Mark Kemp

Mark Kemp

Former Technology Projects Officer, Taronga Conservation Society