Village Roadshow's Gold Coast theme parks boosted by recent visitor numbers

A rise in visitor numbers to Village Roadshow's Gold Coast theme parks over recent months has been attributed to a marketing tourism campaign promoting the city as Australia’s playground.

Village Roadshow Theme Parks Chief Operating Officer Bikash Randhawa said a visitor number resurgence over the Easter perioed was likely a result of Destination Gold Coast’s $2.5 million ‘Come and Play’ marketing.

Randhawa told the Gold Coast Bulletin “(theme parks) was an element missing in the last campaign (so) this is a very good lesson to all to understand the importance of theme parks to this city.”

He added that a flood of Australian tourists visiting Movie World, Sea World and Wet‘n’Wild Gold Coast reflected recent figures showing the Gold Coast was drawing a record domestic visitors, he said.

Overnight expenditure has boomed 19.7% to a record $3.5 billion and visitor nights increased 9% to 14.7 million over recent months.

Randhawa added “we’re seeing stronger visitation, the interstate market is looking great.

“It’s significantly up on last year, which was a complete disaster, as we all know. What we missed out on last year I think we’ve got back and more.

“Every one of our parks is doing exceptionally well. It’s very pleasing to see how Easter panned out for us.”

Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Assistant Manager Kayla Openshaw, said she noticed more visitors - particularly compared to April last year when the Gold Coast hosted the Commonwealth Games.

Openshaw said Ripley’s was still drawing fewer visitors than before the Thunder River Rapids Ride quadruple fatalities at Dreamworld in 2016, adding “a lot of the businesses around here have been down as well.”

Australasian Leisure Management has also learned that visitor numbers to Dreamworld dropped 4.2% during 2018, pushing revenue down and delaying the recovery process for parent company Ardent Leisure.

Visitor numbers fell to 739,800 in 2018 from 772,000 in 2017 during a year in which the Coronial inquest into the 2016 deaths was held.

However, increased spending by those visitors and the expected publication of the Coroner's report give Ardent hope that can finally move forward.

The 2019 Australian Amusement, Leisure and Recreation Association (AALARA) Conference and Trade Show being held this week at The Star on the Gold Coast  is exploring future oppotunities for the attractions and theme park sector.

The AALARA 2019 Conference and Trade Show is being held from 20th to 22nd May.

Click here for more information in the Australasian Leisure Management industry Calendar. 

Images: Bikash Randhawa, courtesy of Village Roadshow Theme Parks.