Luna Park Sydney’s new Big Dipper (above) and Dreamworld’s Steel Taipan (below).
The excitement returns With ongoing hopes of an end to lockdown and border restrictions, Nigel Benton looks at Australia’s amusement and theme parks latest offerings
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espite a lot of dashed hopes over the two years of the Coronavirus pandemic, confidence around vaccine rollouts, easing of restrictions and pent-up consumer demand is creating a level of expectation among Australia’s amusement and theme park operators that finally some sort of ‘new normal’ has arrived. While questions remain about how much consumer behaviour patterns will have changed due to lockdowns, attractions are well placed to meet the pent-up demand for excitement and thrills with a range of new rides and experiences having been rolled out over recent months. This positivity is backed by international indicators. In November, the Walt Disney Company reported that its theme parks business nearly tripled its revenues in the last financial quarter posting a 99% increase in global takings for the three months ending on 2nd October 2021 by comparison with the previous year. Disney’s theme parks reported operating income of US$640 million, compared to a loss of US$945 million a year earlier. In addition, the latest edition of the definitive global attraction attendance report from the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and global consultants AECOM showed that attractions operators and markets are on a path to recovery (see Australasian Leisure Management issue 147). In Australia, beyond Aussie World’s opening of its SX360 ride in June last year (see Australasian Leisure Management issue 145), December saw Dreamworld celebrate its 40th anniversary with the opening of its new Steel Taipan rollercoaster. 16 Australasian Leisure Management Issue 148
First announced by the park in August 2019, the highly anticipated thrill ride features the first rear spinning gondola in the world, the Tailwhip 3600 and, with a top speed of 105 kilometres an hour and a G-force of 3.8, is predicted to bring an extra 250,000 visitors a year to the Gold Coast. Built at a cost of $32 million, Dreamworld’s delivery of the new ride is part of a revitalisation of the theme park and follows the removal of the Thunder River Rapids ride - the site of four fatalities in 2016 - and the subsequent retirement of the Tower of Terror II, BuzzSaw and WipeOut rides in recent years. Commenting on the new ride, Dreamworld Chief Executive, Greg Yong stated “following a challenging couple of years, we
