Sunway Lagoon operator welcomes growth of Malasysia’s theme parks industry

With recent growth in Malaysia’s theme parks market having seen the opening of Leisure Park@i-City in Shah Alam and Legoland in Johor, the South East Asian nation’s longest established theme park, Sunway Lagoon is positive about ongoing growth in the sector.

With further theme parks set to open in the next few years, Sunway Lagoon Sdn Bhd General Manager Sean Choo is positive about growth in the sector.

Choo recently told the Malasysian Star that the arrival of new theme parks “just means that we will have more marketing money in the industry to promote Malaysia in general as a tourist destination.

“And with more theme parks around, we should see an increase in tourist arrivals. So the pie will get bigger.”

The key to growth, Choo explained is for operators to take advantage of the larger market to gain a “bigger slice of the pie”.

Sunway Lagoon was officially opened in 1993 and has long enjoyed first-mover advantage before smaller parks started to gain traction within Kuala Lumpur’s Klang Valley area.

Spread over 32 hectares of a former mine site, Sunway Lagoon is part of an integrated development that leverages from an adjacent hotel and shopping mall.

The attraction’s owners have continually reinvested in the the site, with Choo explaining “we are always looking at new ideas to excite our visitors.

“If we do not continuously invest in upgrading and refurbishing works, we will be impacted in the long run.

“Without new attractions, we will see a drop in visitor arrivals.”

Sunway Lagoon recorded 1.5 million visitors last year with foreign tourists making up more than half of the number.

The management of the park puts a lot of emphasis on attracting foreign visitors as a theme park working closely with tour operators to push sales overseas.

Choo adds “local visitors tend to go to a park once every few years so we need to grow our international visitors to maintain our numbers.

“We are one of the few local parks with large numbers of international visitors and we have invested a lot in growing our brand outside of the country (and) are a very well established brand in the Middle East and in India

The theme park is also looking at strengthening its brand in the region as international amusement and theme park operators are increasingly eyeing a piece of the South-East Asian market.

Choo acknowledges the arrival of global leisure brands in the region with Legoland and DreamWorks Animation to Malaysia, Universal Studios Singapore and Cartoon Network’s Amazone waterpark having opened in Thailand.

The resultant rise in theme park visitations is expected to see some 50 amusement and theme parks by 2020.

Choo states that “having the international parks here is a good thing. It raises the profile of the industry here and there is room for more players.

“But it also pushes local operators to improve themselves in order to compete like upgrading their rides and improving customer service.”

Last year Sunway Lagoon announced a partnership with Viacom International Media Networks Asia that will see the development of a Nickelodeon-themed attraction on 8 hectares of its grounds. The new attraction is expected to be open in the middle of this year.

Choo concluides “we are putting together the elements to have a stronger park.

“We are also extending our wildlife park by another three acres and we are increasing our shows and events to generate more interest.”

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