Village Roadshow Theme Parks put a limit on Unlimited

Unlimited Membership passholders have today received an email advising that they should tell family and friends to sign up before sales of membership programme ends on February 29.

Limited memberships left, sales close 29 Feb might be the strangest choice of words for an announcement about a pass called an Unlimited Membership, but ultimately it signals the first change in strategy that we've seen since the membership plan was introduced in July 2015. Village Roadshow Theme Parks today sent this email to members:

Congratulations on being a Village Theme Parks Unlimited Member. We hope you're enjoying all the benefits Membership has to offer.

Due to popular demand, there's limited Memberships remaining so we wanted to give you the chance to tell your family and friends to secure a Membership before they've gone.

Sales close 29 February so spread the word!

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VRTP Email to Unlimited Members, Feburary 15, 2016

After they congratulate us for giving them money they then proclaim that popular demand has defied the laws of the universe and toppled unlimited with a limited number of limitless passes remaining, and urge us to tell our friends.

Nonetheless, February 29, 2016 is the last date it looks like you'll be able to lock in access to the parks at the current pricing of $9 (Sea World, Movie World, Wet'n'Wild), $12 (add Fright Nights, White Christmas, Carnivale) or $15 (add Wet'n'Wild Sydney). What will follow on March 1, 2016 is the only piece of the puzzle they're leaving out for now.

At the time of writing Village Roadshow Theme Parks had not made any announcement regarding the future of their ticketing, annual passes or membership plans.

The key aspect of the membership programme is that they don't expire unless you cancel your direct debits, much like a gym or phone contract. There's a minimum term of 12 months but unless you take the steps to cancel you'll retain ongoing access to the theme parks and all the associated perks. Beyond your 12 month contract, though the T&Cs note that they reserve the right to increase the monthly fee for these passes. This means that regardless of VRTP's next move, current members will remain members and continue to be debited monthly and retain access to the parks.

The most logical reason for announcing an end-date is to create an event around urgency that drives sales. Whether this will be followed by an increase pricing of memberships – by adding $0.99 onto each payment for instance – or it signals a more fundamental shift in their strategy, it's likely that the next two weeks will be the most cost effective time to buy if it's been on your mind.

Though the membership plans are barely six months old, it's highly likely that the verdict is out having navigated through a summer with the passes; management will know just how successful the passes have been. Announcing a new strategy or price at this typically quiet time of year might not make much sense from the perspective of a promotional calendar, but it may give them an opportunity to reposition or outright replace the membership offerings with enough time left in the financial year for the group to achieve budget goals.

Australian Leisure Management reported last month that membership ticketing is the new way forward, based on industry analyst Sam Teeger of Citi Research. Citing recurring revenue streams, higher retention rates, higher pricing compared to fixed-price annual passes yet lower entry barriers due to monthly billing and the ease that revenue can be increased with small increases to the monthly price, Teeger suggested that Six Flags in the USA had seen year-on-year single digit revenue growth since they introduced a similar strategy in 2010.

Teeger told Australian Lesiure Management that Dreamworld/WhiteWater World may follow suit: "[Given] Village is the leader with over 60% market share, we would not be surprised if [Dreamworld owner] Ardent was to follow in the future if Village’s membership program is successful.” 

Parent company Village Roadshow are due to release their half-yearly figures on this same date – February 29 – based on ASX mandated reporting dates. This means that there's limited insight into just how they've performed right now.

The company looks set to have a high investment, high growth couple of years. Not one but two major attractions are all but confirmed for Warner Bros. Movie World and Village Roadshow Theme Parks have revealed no shortage of audacious scheming for the Oxenford home of Movie World and Wet'n'Wild. With such plans at play, VRTP may wish to tie up the current membership strategy and launch a new one off the back of officially announcing some of their plans for the future.

Warner Bros. Movie World will in all likelihood debut a new section of the park in the September or December school holidays, and past history suggests that an announcement might be made sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile Dreamworld have responded by continuing to do whatever it is that they do.