Village Roadshow reveals ‘incredibly disappointing’ results for Wet'n'Wild Sydney

While Village Roadshow’s newly released results have shown steady improvement in the performance of their Gold Coast theme parks, results at Wet'n'Wild Sydney have been described as “incredibly disappointing” by company Chief Financial Officer Julie Raffe.

The results show that for the first half of the financial year Wet'n'Wild Sydney reported an overall $5 million loss before tax with attendance dropping from 235,000 in the corresponding period in 2016 to 173,000. The 235,000 attendance in 2016 had been a 10.4% attendance fall on the previous year.

Burke has cited the underperformance of Wet'n'Wild Sydney as being linked to the Dreamworld fatalities of 2016, referring to the reaction of a local resident to the attraction’s tall waterslide towers, with one would-be guest apparently commenting “those big towers gave me the 'heebie geebies'".

Facing recent questions about whether the waterpark should be either sold or shut down, Raffe conceded that it has not met expectations but were firm in their belief that it will turn around.

Raffe advised “(Wet'n'Wild Sydney has been) incredibly disappointing. It's an underperforming asset and we appreciate that.

“We do think that it's had an abnormally bad year from Dreamworld and a weather perspective (but) we do think we can get a reasonable return from it.”

Village Roadshow co-Chief Executive and co-Chairman Graham Burke also insisted that the waterpark is in good shape and it requires minimal spend to rectify its performance, advising “right now we've got a very good experience.

"We've got the park contained and we don't need to spend anymore money. More work has been done this year and I think we'll have quite a good half."

Part of that work includes looking at the season length and shortening it in future to remove loss-making periods at the cooler ends of their previous September to April operating calendar.

Raffe added “we've recognised that the operating season needs to be shorter and that by definition will improve the return by taking some of those operating losses from the early part of the year.”

Burke went on to concede, “management dropped the ball, because if you look at some extraordinarily successful waterparks in other jurisdictions with even more severe weather like New York, like Chicago. They have a strict, tight, contained season (and) we should not have run such long seasons."

Commenting on Wet'n'Wild Sydney in its last annual report, Village Roadshow advised that it would look to track guest experience through the application of the Net Promoter Score system and will be looking to “build brand equity and loyalty, and reducing operational cost through a streamlined calendar and targeted events and utilising Gold Coast managers on a rotational basis.”

Jamberoo Action Park, Wet'n'Wild Sydney's main competitor, saw attendance grow in the 2016/17 season off the back of their $5 million investment in The Perfect Storm.

16th February 2018 - VILLAGE ROADSHOW REPORTS SLOW ATTRACTIONS RECOVERY AMID MOVE AWAY FROM TICKET DISCOUNTING 

13th January 2018 - WET’N’WILD SYDNEY PRESENTS SUMMER TIME MOTOCROSS THRILLS

1st December 2017 - MOVIE WORLD ENDS LOCKER HIRE FEES ON SUPERMAN ESCAPE RIDE

29th November 2017 - VILLAGE ROADSHOW MOVES AWAY FROM LOW COST THEME PARK PASSES

22nd September 2017 - WARNER BROS. MOVIE WORLD OPENS SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE’S LARGEST ROLLERCOASTER

19th September 2017 - VILLAGE ROADSHOW TO INSTALL ACCESSO PASSPORT TICKETING SUITE AT KEY ATTRACTIONS  

21st August 2017 - JAMBEROO ACTION ANNOUNCES SUMMER SEASON OPENING PLANS

7th April 2017 - VILLAGE ROADSHOW CHANGES SEE CLARK KIRBY APPOINTED THEME PARKS DIVISION CHIEF EXECUTIVE 

19th September 2016 - JAMBEROO ACTION PARK TO BE HIT BY THE PERFECT STORM

25th September 2015 - WET’N’WILD SYDNEY NOW OPEN FOR ITS THIRD SEASON 

18th September 2015 - JAMBEROO ACTION PARK ACHIEVES WORLD RECORD FOR AUSTRALIA’S NEWEST ‘BIG THING’

25th August 2015 - WEATHER HITS VILLAGE ROADSHOW PROFITS

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