The Excitement Returns

Luna Park Sydney’s new Big Dipper (above) and Dreamworld’s Steel Taipan (below).

With ongoing hopes of an end to lockdown and border restrictions, Nigel Benton looks at Australia’s amusement and theme parks latest offerings

Despite 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.

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

Queues for Dreamworld’s Steel Taipan. felt committed to building a world-class tourism infrastructure asset that will benefit not only Dreamworld but also the entire SEQ tourism sector.”

Completion of the project was made possible by a threeyear, COVID stimulus funding package from the Queensland Government to parent company Ardent Leisure consisting of a $63,7 million loan and $6.2 million grant.

The funding, which shows the importance of Dreamworld to the south east Queensland economy and indicates that the region’s theme parks are ‘too big to fail’, was backed up by Ardent Leisure also receiving almost $20 million from the Federal Government’s JobKeeper initiative during the 2019/20 and 2020/21 financial years. It can also be assumed that Village Roadshow received more in JobKeeper funds.

Having cut its losses to $86.9 million in the year to 30th June last year, compared to $136.1 million in 2019/20, Ardent Leisure Chairman, Dr Gary Weiss advised that the theme park business continued to receive strong support from the local market despite visitor numbers being impacted by international and interstate border restrictions, particularly during peak trading period.

Looking beyond the pandemic, Dr Weiss noted “we are confident that Ardent is well positioned for future growth once market conditions begin to improve.”

However, despite the financial assistance and confidence, just before Christmas Ardent Leisure was reported to have dropped plans to develop a hotel and tourist park adjacent to Dreamworld.

First revealed last May, the $75 million project for a 4-star 250 room resort-style hotel and tourist park were apparently halted after a breakdown in negotiations with the developer.

The Dreamworld Resort project was to have been funded and developed by Gold Coast Airport Hotel developer Evolution Group on part of the surplus land owned by Ardent next to Dreamworld.

The ‘rollercoaster’ of lockdowns and pre-Christmas uncertainty about the impact of the new Coronavirus variant, saw Village Roadshow owner VRG Holdco advise at the beginning of January that the ongoing viability of the entertainment and theme park group is contingent on the Omicron wave not resulting in new restrictions on its operations.

According to accounts lodged with the Australian Securities Investments Commission on 20th December 2021, VRG Holdco recorded a net loss of $35.8 million in the 2020/21 financial year,, an improvement on its net loss of $117.4 million for the 2019/20 financial year - its last as a public company.

The group implemented cost-reduction strategies during the pandemic including standing down of front-line employees, a group-wide restructuring, deferring all non-essential capital expenditure and working with landlords for rent relief.

While not committing to new investments, commitments made by Village Roadshow before the start of the pandemic saw Australia’s tallest waterpark slide and new aquatic play zone open at Wet’n’Wild on the Gold Coast in early December.

Standing 27 metres high, the new slide tower features three slides - the Kaboom!, Double Barrell and Super Ripper - and is surrounded by the H2Oasis splash zone featuring tipping buckets, water jets and other children’s water play features.

At the time of its opening, Village Roadshow Chief Executive, Clark Kirby advised “this new attraction is a game-changer for Wet’n’Wild and with the Tallest waterslide tower in Australia featuring three all new rides, there are plenty of new thrills and spills on offer for our guests in time for summer.”

Completion of this project, as well as the soon-to-becompleted New Atlantic precinct at Sea World also benefitted from significant funding from the Queensland Government’s COVID stimulus package.

Wet’n’Wild on the Gold Coast has opened Australia’s tallest waterpark slide tower and a new aquatic play zone (above and below).

Luna Park Sydney’s popullar Hair Raiser (above) and the Surfers Paradise Slingshot (below).

The Christmas period also saw the arrival of the world’s first launched single-rail rollercoaster at Luna Park Sydney. Supplied by leading global amusement ride manufacturer Intamin the ‘Big Dipper’ took its name from a wooden rollercoaster that operated at Luna Park from 1935 until 1979.

Opened as the centrepiece of a $30 million ride investment at the Sydney harbourside amusement park, the Big Dipper features alongside eight new rides, including six new children’s rides.

Commenting on the additions, Luna Park Sydney Director, Warwick Doughty stated “eight of the new rides are operational with the two coasters and Sledgehammer (a 360 degree swing ride) being extremely popular.”

Softfall innovation in Wet’n’Wild’s Slide and Splash precinct

The 750 metre² softfall surfacing in the H2Oasis water play area at Wet’n’Wild representing one of the biggest installations of a Life Floor surface in the world - and the second largest undertaken in Australia by Life Floor (Australia & NZ) and Gold Coast based installation partner Grassports Australia (Queensland).

It is also the most complicated design ever undertaken by Life Floor with eight colours including the very distinctive curved white lines.

The design necessitated an entirely new installation technique which saw the lines installed last using innovative new equipment invented specially for the project.

Life Floor (ANZ) Managing Director, Grant Burgess advises “our installation team invested a lot of time testing new approaches to make sure the installation was true to the architect’s intricate design.

“The outcome speaks for itself - it’s truly amazing.”

Back on the Gold Coast, the relocated and reopened Surfers Paradise Slingshot has been proving to be a major drawcard since recommencing operations on 27th December.

At its new location on Surfers Paradise’s Cavill Avenue, the busiest tourist street in Australia, the attraction shoots riders more than 80 metres into the air at a speed of 160km/h.

The new location has seen the attraction perform “way above expectations” according to Slingshot owner Brian Mirfin, who added “with the border reopening we’ve been meeting a pent up demand for excitement.”

The Slingshot ride itself has been through ongoing enhancement since its 1995 launch and now features state-ofthe-art safety mechanisms and a range of patented technologies including spring powered gearbox and programmable logical controller (PLC) technology to control both automation and safety functions.

While the opening of new rides will be offering new experiences to meet demand stifled during lockdowns and border closures, each of these developments was planned and committed to prior to the pandemic and it will be interesting to see which operators, if any, will be in a financial position to commit to new rides and experiences in the coming years.

Nonetheless, with rides and attractions dedicated to bringing people together for shared experiences, positivity in the sector looks set to overcome its many challenges. Nigel Benton is Publisher of Australasian Leisure Management.

AALARA announces May dates for 2022 Conference

The Australian Amusement, Leisure and Recreation Association (AALARA) has announced that it will be staging its 2022 Conference and Trade Showcase on the Gold Coast from 16th to 18th May at the Sea World Conference Centre.

The theme of this year’s event is ‘Doing Business in 2022 & Beyond’ and includes a range of keynote speakers, performer panels and information sessions.