From the Daily Telegraph:

Dreamworld is in its renaissance with the operator of the popular Gold Coast theme park posting record visitor numbers, up 44 per cent and breaking decade-old records.

Visitor numbers have surged by 44 per cent for the operator of Gold Coast theme park Dreamworld in the first half of the 2026 financial year, driven by strong annual pass sales, supported by targeted promotional activities.

The increase in visitors saw ticket sales increase by 46.6 per cent for Coast Entertainment Holdings’ Dreamworld, WhiteWater World, and SkyPoint attractions in the first 27 weeks of FY26.

In a statement to the ASX, Coast Entertainment – which was rebranded in 2023 from Ardent Leisure Group – said operating revenue jumped to $62.2m, up 30.2 per cent, compared to the same six-month period last year.

It also exceeded the previous record of almost a decade ago.

Actual visitor number were not released but the Group said ticket sales for the six months to December 30 also broke 2016 records.

In the latest period, Dreamworld recorded is highest ever daily attendance with new attractions like Kenny & Belinda’s Dreamland and the Dreamworld Flyer, drawing visitors.

The six months also saw increased annual pass sales, supported by targeted promotional activities during the period including successful ‘End-of-Financial-Year’, ‘Kings Birthday’ and ‘Black Friday’ campaigns.

The international market continued its gradual recovery during the period, although it remains below historical levels but is expected to continue to recover.

“On 12 December 2025, the Group successfully opened its new King Claw attraction, the fastest Gyro Swing ride in the Southern Hemisphere.” Coast Entertainment said.

“The new attraction significantly improves on its predecessor The Claw in scale and experience and is proving to be another strong drawcard for Dreamworld following the opening of Rivertown just over one year ago.

“With this addition, Dreamworld’s ride and attraction portfolio is well positioned to support continued visitation growth and engagement across a broad audience, from families to thrill seekers.”

Coast Entertainment said SkyPoint also delivered a robust performance during the period, once again achieving record revenues, notwithstanding low international visitation.

The company said ticket sales and visitation to its attractions in the first three weeks of January 2026 continued to show growth.

The Group said the state government was still assessing the Dreamworld masterplan which potentially will transform the theme park’s excess land into a mixed-use hub including a resort/hotel, residential areas, dining/retail (Gateway Precinct), and nature-based tourism zones.

As at 30 December 2025, the Group had a cash balance of $37.6m, an increase of $3.7m compared to 24 June 2025.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/new-south-wales/coast-entertainment-reports-record-revenue-as-new-rides-drive-dreamworld-visitor-boom/news-story/3f37c11c62b11ba401b6878bc68b0f57

Great to hear. As I’ve said before on this forum, we have both passes and Dreamworld is our favourite by far. From staff, park cleanliness and the open areas, it’s definitely in our opinion the best park. Excited too see what’s in store for the Motorcoaster replacement

You can goose the attendance giving away the gate, but the real flex is returning to full trading hours, full price tickets, and turnstiles that stay calm.

25 minutes ago, New display name said:

You can goose the attendance giving away the gate, but the real flex is returning to full trading hours, full price tickets, and turnstiles that stay calm.

Full disclosure - i'm not a shareholder, and I have more important things to do than read through annual reports and such - so I'll take the article at face value:

18 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

record visitor numbers, up 44 per cent

ticket sales increase by 46.6 per cent

operating revenue jumped to $62.2m, up 30.2 per cent

It also exceeded the previous record of almost a decade ago.

More people, and more money... doesn't sound like the gate has been given away to me...

DW are doing everything right. Raising prices right now would be a mistake. Locals see DW as a high quality, good value entertainment option. A lot of people, myself included, have not bothered renewing Village passes and are now more likely to spend those visits (and money) at DW.

Continued re-investment into the park will only help to sustain the visitor numbers and revenue, and modest price increases will help to maintain the perceived value.

I know I've convinced 5 people to buy passes, and they'll occasionally drop into DW just to eat at Jane's.

Great attractions, high quality theming, pleasant staff and reasonable prices. They've got the basics right and they're seeing the benefits.

@wikiverse I’m not calling for a price hike. I’m just allergic to spin. Inflation seems to have missed the Coast report entirely, and the fine print shows the revenue boost is coming from cut-price annual passes, while single-day tickets aren’t gaining the same traction. The road back is slow, and Dreamworld returning to full trading will be my hallelujah moment.

Assuming a sustainable profit margin either way, is it better to price a pizza at $7 each, and sell 100 of them, or price them at $30 each and only sell 10?

A $7 pizza is seen as good value, and many people will happily pay that price, even if it might be slightly smaller, or have a few less toppings. Buying 4 of these with various toppings is great bang for buck and ensures those partaking leave satiated.

On the flip side, a $30 pizza would be seen as a premium product. Some people will keep buying the $30 pizzas because they like the particular toppings, or because they want to splurge, but it's less likely the same buyer would order 4 of these and drop $120 - the value proposition isn't quite there...

38 minutes ago, New display name said:

single-day tickets aren’t gaining the same traction.

A lot of parks don't really push their single day tickets and want guests to buy passes as this gives them much more data about buying habits and usage, and increases the per cap spend. Passholders are likely to visit a few times wherein someone with a day ticket is unlikely to repeat visit without substantial reasoning.

Village certainly don't emphasise single day tickets. They actively push guests - even those who are only on the coast for a short term - to buy a bigger \ longer pass - be that 7-14 day passes or their annual product.

Calling out the lack of traction on single day tickets as being a poor performance indicator of behalf of Coast is also a very unbalanced opinion since the other other provider you can compare to doesn't report on this metric in any meaningful way - for all you know Coast's single day ticket performance could be exceeding Village's...

43 minutes ago, New display name said:

I’m not calling for a price hike.

It feels like you were

2 hours ago, New display name said:

the real flex is returning to full trading hours, full price tickets,

Can you explain to me what a calm turnstile is?

2 hours ago, New display name said:

turnstiles that stay calm.

I won't repeat what Dapto said but passes are much better at driving ongoing, long-term revenue than single day passes.

58 minutes ago, New display name said:

Inflation seems to have missed the Coast report entirely,

Inflation doesn't matter. It is a different park to 2016. It is a smaller park with fewer rides, shorter operating hours and different food and beverage offerings.

Higher attendance and higher revenue, increased in-park spend means that DW have won back the trust of the public. They're willing to visit and spend, which means that DW just needs to continue on it's current trajectory of maintaining the basics and building new, high-quality attractions each year to keep people renewing those passes. Modest price increases to passes will maintain the perceived value and encourage more visits and more in-park spend.

Nothing in this report is negative. DW have overcome the worst possible thing that could happen to a theme park, and are currently set-up for success.

11 minutes ago, wikiverse said:

I won't repeat what Dapto said

Cheers. Dapto stays blocked, and his commentary can continue shouting into the void.

13 minutes ago, wikiverse said:

Inflation doesn't matter. It is a different park to 2016. It is a smaller park with fewer rides, shorter operating hours and different food and beverage offerings.

Higher attendance and higher revenue, increased in-park spend means that DW have won back the trust of the public. They're willing to visit and spend, which means that DW just needs to continue on it's current trajectory of maintaining the basics and building new, high-quality attractions each year to keep people renewing those passes. Modest price increases to passes will maintain the perceived value and encourage more visits and more in-park spend.

Nothing in this report is negative. DW have overcome the worst possible thing that could happen to a theme park, and are currently set-up for success.

We are in major disagreement here, Inflation does matter.

• $60 million today = $45 million – $46 million in 2016
• In reverse: $60 million in 2016 would be roughly $78 million – $80 million today if just inflation is considered.

Dreamworld is setting attendance records while full year-round operations continue to be not happening.

2 hours ago, New display name said:

• In reverse: $60 million in 2016 would be roughly $78 million – $80 million today if just inflation is considered.

It's a false equivalence because it's an entirely different park. The park in 2016 was a bigger park with more attractions. It also didn't have to overcome years of mismanagement an an accident that shattered the public's trust. It is unreasonable to expect DW to be charging the same prices when it doesn't provide the same experience.

Clearly $99 passes on sale is the sweet-spot where people find DW to be excellent value. Over time, they will increase their prices when the number of attractions goes up, but first they need to prove their value and sustain the trust and good will that they've built up. Nothing in their document says 'ok, we've finished fixing the park, it's completely back to where it was now'. They're just making comparisons to their previous record revenue year to show how much better they're doing than the previous 10 years since the accident.

Extending trading hours doesn't always mean more revenue, it usually just means increased expenses from staff and ride cycles/maintenance - expenses that eat into profits and reduce the money that can be invested in new rides and attractions. Plus, shorter trading hours encourage pass holders to return, generating more days of in-park spend.

In addition, the business model has moved from day passes to annual passes. Retaining customers, building loyalty and generating year-round revenue is the new business model.

If DW only offered day passes, I would visit once every 1-2 years and they'd get about $150 out of me. With an annual pass I can pay $99 for a full year of access, but I'll visit once a month. I'll spend money at Jane's, on drinks, coffee, snacks, maybe a Tail Whip ride a few times a year. On average I might spend $50 a month at DW, which means across a year DW are getting $700 out of me. Plus it's very easy to convince my friends that it's great value to buy a pass and do the same.

I would otherwise spend that money on a day out at the beach or at Southbank, but DW offering low-cost passes redirects that money toward them instead. I have a great day with my friends, DW has a vibrant active park that makes money, and I'm happy to spend money knowing it's going to be reinvested on future attractions and park improvements. Everybody wins.

Movie World (MW) are exposed to impactful long-term licensing arrangements such as, intellectual property fees associated with the use for characters like Batman, Superman, Scooby Doo and so forth. Fees not only apply to the characters themselves but any rides attached to any Universal Studio names such as Batman and Superman. In short, for MW to make a profit, they must consider the significant amount that needs to be handed over to Universal Studios in the US before MW Australia can even start to think about making a profit.

Dreamworld on the other hand have licensing agreements that are significantly less ownerous being ABC and the Wiggles for example.

With the above stated, MW cannot afford to drop its ticket prices in the same manner as DW as BGH capital, owners of MW have significant intellectual property fees that needs to go back to the USA to pay for their use of Universal characters.

DW can afford to be a lot more flexible and innovative in the way they manage their marketing and ticket sales processes as opposed to a more constraint and restricted MW theme park.

4 hours ago, New display name said:

Dapto stays blocked, and his commentary can continue shouting into the void.

What he doesn't realise is that I don't respond to him for his benefit - I respond for the benefit of everyone reading his garbage so that they have a counter argument and a balanced perspective from both sides.

OK the goal post is slowly being moved from my original post, but I’m willing to go with the flow.

Calling the comparison invalid because it’s a different park now is an emotionally driven response

2016 Dreamworld was bigger, trust took a hit and expectations probably need a little asterisk. But markets don’t price sympathy. They price the experience on offer today, not the one in the scrapbook. Guests don’t arrive at the gate thinking: “Given historical mismanagement and a tragic accident, this feels like fair value.” They’re usually thinking:
“Is this worth my time and money today or should I just head to the beach and grab a kebab?”

Once you accept the park delivers a smaller experience, a few things naturally follow. Lower pricing shifts from strategy to necessity, comparisons to peak-year revenue get a bit fuzzy and you can’t easily dismiss experience comparisons while celebrating record metrics

You can’t really say “it’s unfair to compare experiences” and then say “but revenue records still count”. That’s less nuance and more selective optimism.

Cheap annual passes feel great while they’re turning goodwill into visits and visits into cash. They get trickier when they start setting the reference price. Once the market settles on, “Dreamworld equals about $99 a year”, raising prices isn’t a gentle step up. It feels more like asking people to climb a ledge.
You’re not just asking them to pay more, you’re asking them to believe the park has genuinely changed. That’s a tougher sell than starting higher and discounting with purpose.

Value pricing builds volume and it can also teach people to wait for the next deal. (how many people here wait for the $89 renewal price? I know I do)

Cheap passes absolutely help bring people back through the gate but they don’t automatically rebuild trust, and in some cases, they quietly reinforce the idea that full price isn’t justified yet. (we’re not going to charge you full price and we’re not going back to full trading because what we are offering, we don’t believe is good enough)

Yes, longer hours cost more, but permanently shorter hours do something subtle. They reset expectations.

A park that closes early gently trains guests to:

Treat it as a half-day outing
Drop in rather than settle in
Spend less time, and often less money, per visit

Your personal example is a good one, but it’s not the average.

You’re engaged, you’re social & you’re already inclined to spend.

Many passholders:

Eat later, use the park as a casual loop & spend lightly because “I’ll be back again”

A pass-heavy model works best when there’s a healthy share of people like you. If that mix shifts, the numbers don’t explode, they just slowly thin out.

Edited January 22Jan 22 by New display name

1 hour ago, wikiverse said:

Over time, they will increase their prices when the number of attractions goes up,

They already are - that $99 is now $124 and $169 (albeit they do go on sale for $99 quite often) :

3 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

They already are - that $99 is now $124 and $169 (albeit they do go on sale for $99 quite often) :

Worth noting a few years ago they did try raising the renewal price to $119 from $99.

Renewals dropped off, and they quietly dropped the price back. The give away the gate strategy even saw renewals as low as $69 last year for those that refused more expensive offers, my understanding is these below $99 renewals are no longer offered.

Renewals are still priced at $99, personally I would like to see this raised (and a premium pass introduced) but I can understand going above $100 being a psychological barrier.

If you purchased a year pass 30 years ago at DW, it cost more than what you would pay today. 🤣

9 hours ago, New display name said:

If you purchased a year pass 30 years ago at DW, it cost more than what you would pay today. 🤣

Yeah, hilarious.

Except the same applies to Village down the road too. 20 years ago, annual passes to SW, MW and WnW would set you back $450. Today you get that plus Paradise Country and the 3 night events for half that at $229.

It's almost like both parks realised they could make more money selling $7 pizzas than $30 pizzas...

"record visitor numbers"

It seems closing a waterpark during quiet periods doesn't really impact your attendance much after all...