With China’s giant pandas proving big business worldwide, the Czech Republic’s Prague Zoo is getting in on the act, unveiling plans for a Kc800m (US$33.5m, €29.6m, £25.5m) development to house the sought after animals.

To be funded by the city of Prague, the new Panda Pavilion will offer a dedicated giant panda habitat, while also adding space for the zoo’s existing polar bears and gorillas. The pavilion will also include exotic birds and Australian wildlife exhibits, with Tasmanian devils among the planned additions.

The zoo is yet to officially acquire any pandas, which are among the most protected species in the world, with just 27 living in captivity outside of China.

The practice of leasing a panda involves a huge investment in both time and money, with deals involving the popular creatures reaching the highest political and diplomatic levels on occasion.

In addition to extra staff required to care for pandas – which remain the property of China – the estimated cost to house a pair is Kc24m (US$1m, €884,000, £761,000) a year, with deals usually running 10 years. It costs around an additional Kc4.7m (US$200,000, €176,000, £152,000) to feed the animals.

While costs are high, so are the rewards, with examples such as Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo reporting a 50 per cent spike in visitor numbers in the first year of its pandas’ residencies.

The development is expected to be completed in 2021, with the Chinese government expecting to confirm a panda loan relatively soon as relations between Prague and Beijing strengthen.

Prague Zoo welcomed a record 1.3 million visitors in 2015 and is projecting to beat that record after already hitting a million visitors earlier this month. The addition of pandas could increase visitor numbers by as much as half-a-million, according to government projections.