Poor ticket sales see Legoland Japan reduce opening days

With visitor numbers reportedly much lower than predicted, the recently opened Legoland Japan is to close for two days a week.

Opened in April this year, the first Legoland theme park in Japan and the second in Asia had projected that it would attract over two million visitors a year.

However, there is now speculation over the success of the park, with visitor numbers ticket sales much lower than anticipated.

Originally opened every day of the week, the decision was made in June to close the park on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The official reason given was that it would offer maintenance crews time to do their work and would allow time off for service staff.

However, the park has already shifted from this plan, with the attraction back running seven days a week as schools close down for the summer holidays.

Nonetheless, the end of August will see a return of the five day week, with the attraction scheduled to resume seven-day-a-week operations during holiday periods.

Reports suggest that the attraction only reached 30% of its projected revenue goals for April. May showed an improvement but still fell short, only reaching 60% of projections.

Ticket prices have been cited as a reason for the poor initial performance with Legoland Japan priced similarly to the larger and better-known Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan.

Media reports suggest that although feedback for Legoland is generally good, visitors may be eschewing the new attraction in favour of its more sizeable and more established rivals.

Legoland Japan includes several rides alongside a miniature world with landmarks including recreations of Nagoya Castle, Tokyo Station and Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto.

Merlin Entertainments, who own the resort, have plans to build a Legoland Hotel and a Sea Life aquarium next to the park in 2018.

Image: The entrance to Legoland Japan. Courtesy of Legoland Japan. 

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