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I don’t see VR as a huge threat to theme parks at all, no more so than Game Over is across the road (who VTP actually provide discounts for Members at) or Timezone/iPlay. They operate in a different space and are battling largely for different dollars. The only natural true competitor to theme parks is other theme parks. Tourists generally don’t decide whether they are going to Movieworld or Timezone, or Dreamworld or Infinity. It’s Movieworld or Dreamworld, Timezone or Infinity. One is a major tent pole attraction, the others are secondary attractions

Not exactly but that is part of it. If theme parks are meant to transport you to another place, then VR arguably can do that much better. Easy to imagine wandering around Looney Tunes land and interacting with virtual Looney Tunes characters-admittedly this kind of thing could also be introduced at home. I mean full VR rides and games. And I think it is a step up in entertainment value from a Timezone or an iPlay. And Timezone is more fun than SeaWorld for $25 at the moment anyway in my recent experience. I'm not talking about this taking away all their business but it only needs to reduce attendance by 10% to have a significant impact on their business. They're howling about revenue being down a few percent post the Dreamworld incident. To say technological change could not wipe out a few more due to new competition is naive I think. Personally I don't think VR is that great or exciting for the most part but there's definitely plenty of potential for it to capture some people who would otherwise visit a theme park. I mean when I eventually go to VR Zone in Tokyo that will basically be replacing a day of going to a theme park for me. If that was on the Gold Coast it would be far more compelling to visit than SeaWorld for me for example.

Good to know it's hiding there somewhere then! Still think it should be on the list of rides. It's not like they have enough rides without it.

It’s Back!

I agree. Even if it was to do with a contract, you would think that WNW would be allowed to keep it running until the end of the holidays. Or with that even, you would have thought before they signed the contract they checked to see if the end date was during a peak time (such as holidays) ??

https://seaworld.com.au/attractions/rides-and-precincts/monorail

Basically, without knowing the specifics. Reduces the upfront capex commitment. Unlikely they won’t take up the option to purchase, given it’s harder to hand back a roller coaster compared to a jumbo.

It's a ride to me, as were the chairlifts and miniature railway until they closed, and as is the Dreamworld train which they do list as a ride on their site.

So that change in ticketing strategy resulted in people paying less per ticket on average? That basically means visits also dropped, which would also have dropped in park spend-particularly on F&B. Basically, lower total revenue without really lowering any costs but they're still blaming it on Dreamworld. Guess this will be the case for at least another 6 months. Attendances in June were inline because attendance is hardly that high in June normally and for many people it was their last month of having a pass. What they do not comment is pass sales, bet they do not match prior years at all. Also they're blind if they think their theme parks are not at risk of technological disruption. There's every chance that a VR amusement centre gets built on the Gold Coast in the next 3-5 years. VR has to be a huge threat to any theme park.

The lease agreement for rivals lists it as an expense, so does this mean MW are leasing the Hypercoaster for $5.4million per year from Mack for the next 5 years after which they pay a fee and own it outright? Similar to how airlines operate, they lease out the aircraft from Boeing & Airbus and after the lease expires they can purchase the aircraft.

@-nick.white.1543the announced it after it was closed. @themagicianpost shows SW removed all details of it and this was before SW said anything.

Interesting to note that they still include '& Water Park' in the Sea World Resort logo. They can't seriously be referring to the water play and pool within the resort grounds, can they? (I'm thinking they've just used an outdated logo). other things that strike me: Large capital investment required Addition of lower cost new attractions to enhance guest appeal Cue @Roachie's opinion on 'new creative marketing campaigns'... so long as they don't bring back that e-serve guy... a little concerning about evaluating the top golf opportunity - as if they are going to move away from building any more of them after such an effort... As for the DCR lease, I'm quite perplexed and keen to hear more...

I swear I heard about this the other day - I'm somewhat surprised that it wasn't on Parkz. My understanding is the contract hasn't been renewed. no idea of the reason why. (Of course, for those who didn't know, WnWB was an external contractor supplying services in the park - it wasn't owned by VRTP)

Yeah, you'd think if they wanted to close buggies they would say they are closing it, but not actually close it until the end of school holidays. And even if they did shut it now (which it sounds like they have) you would have thought that they would've said something about its closure and not just leave us in the dark.

Hmm. I went on it only a few weeks ago and everything seemed normal. I hope it hasn't closed because I thought it was pretty good.

If you want to go down this path of selling soundly performing parks then Sea World is far and away the better candidate for sale: it's in a bit of a predicament in terms of direction, faces something of a PR/image problem, it's geographically separated from the other parks and is surrounded by land that has been earmarked for development with no firm plan in place. Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast prints money. It's historically one of the best performing water parks in the world and seasonality aside it operates at a higher margin than any of the other Gold Coast parks. Certainly their stake in WnW Las Vegas will go given it's their lone USA park and their other remaining international operations are now essentially management deals without equity.

It's a bit like "New Myer" and "Target Tomorrow" in the retail world. Just marketing words. Nobody remembers after a few years, and at the end of the day they didn't really change their names.

DW are in no position to blow millions of dollars relocating MDMC, only to blow a few more million to put a new ride in its place. If DW did build a new ride, don't you think they would more likely make use of the abundance of land that's currently sitting dormant behind a fence?

Seems like a very sudden closure, and at school holiday time too. Definitely looks like it's gone though.