CEO says new thrill ride for 2007

Greg Shaw, Chief Executive Officer of Macquarie Leisure Trust Group, owners and operators of Dreamworld on the Gold Coast says that 2007 will see the company ready to invest in a new thrill ride for the popular theme park.

At the company's half-yearly financial presentation, Mr. Shaw went into detail on the year ahead for the Gold Coast theme park, revealing what many avid fans of the park have known for months.

"We're looking at new rides," Shaw stated in response to an investor's question about the upcoming year for the theme park.

In recent years Dreamworld has shied away from installing blockbuster thrill rides. Their costly nature - sometimes upwards of $20 million for a single ride - means that they are few and far between. This is a dangerous situation to be in for a theme park like Dreamworld which exists in a very competitive environment.

Reducing emphasis on major thrill rides has allowed the park to concentrate on year-to-year investments, focusing on smaller attractions and family-oriented experiences like Nickelodeon Central and Wiggles World. In an environment as volatile as the theme park industry, it pays to be able to adapt to market trends.

"What we've done in the five years I've been associated with the business is tried to make sure we vary the offer so that we're not totally dependant upon very expensive thrill rides," Shaw said in the company's recent half-year financial presentation. "That's been done through things like FlowRider, which was $1.5 million, and has had a phenomenal response."

"But there is a cycle where every couple of years we should put in a thrill ride that really will help drive that ongoing attendance. We're looking at a few options in the thrill ride department over the course of the next 12 months, still within our maintainable capital spend of $6.1 million a year.

No further information was released by Macquarie Leisure Trust. As is common for Australian theme parks, management remain tight-lipped on the ride which is currently in early stages of construction.

Early reports revealed Dreamworld was in talks with Dutch ride manufacturer Vekoma to commission a roller coaster for the park. Soon after reports suggested that these talks were over and the park had settled on a roller coaster from renowned Swiss manufacturer Intamin AG.

The company revealed in a European trade magazine that among the rides they have sold for 2007 was a novel twist on their popular Accelerator coaster concept for Dreamworld. The Accelerator coaster uses a hydraulic cable launch to launch trains from a standstill to high speeds in a matter of seconds. Dreamworld's model will feature seats styled after motorcycles to give riders a sitting position and style of ride totally unique to Australia.

Vekoma - who invented this style of coaster - build a ride that is relatively slow and small, featuring a series of dips and turns that creates a family style of attraction (pictured). Their ride relies on the unique seating to create much of the thrill. Intamin's version will follow suit, but instead is reported to feature a motorcycle and sidecar seating orientation, allowing smaller guests to ride in the sidecar.

Superman Escape at Warner Bros. Movie World was Australia's first coaster to use the hydraulic launch technology, which launches from 0-100km/hr in just 2.5 seconds. A coaster of this nature could be expected to cost around $13-15 million for the basic ride, roughly twice Dreamworld's allocated annual capital expenditure. As such it is expected that Dreamworld's model will feature a slower launch to gear the ride more appropriately to families rather than thrill ride fans.

Intamin AG has become a staple manufacturer at the Gold Coast theme parks. In the past two decades they are the manufacturer responsible for six major attractions across the major theme parks in the region. At Dreamworld, Tower of Terror, Giant Drop, The Claw and Thunder River Rapids are all credited to Intamin AG's two ride manufacturing divisions.

Dreamworld's last major ride was The Claw in 2004. Their last new coaster was Runaway Reptar Rollercoaster in Nickelodeon Central that is aimed at children and families. The second-hand Cyclone opened in 2001, ending a 15 year coaster drought since 1986's Eureka Mountain Mine Ride, which is currently closed indefinitely for extensive maintenance. The park's original roller coaster Thunderbolt was scrapped in 2004.

Wet'n'Wild Water World's new Halfpipe coaster is manufactured by the company and due to open later this year.