If you had $500 million to spend on a theme park...

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

10 minutes ago, Tim Dasco said:

 

(Did I forget anything?)

Cantilevered smoke roof, and fire detectors on all the coaster cars, with built in battery operated motors to reverse the coaster cars away from fire. 

10 minutes ago, jake_hunt said:

@SunshineTom Cairns and the surrounding region gets more tourists annually than the GC (It's 3rd in Aus compared to 6th in terms of tourists per year). There's a big market for a park there.

Cairns tourism figures are inflated by the fact that it serves as an international airport alternative to the major cities. Many of the tourism arrivals at Cairns airport interchange to domestic flights, rental cars and campers, tour buses and other charters to go elsewhere. 

In addition, many 'tourism' arrivals are cruise ships, many of which only stay for the day, and a full-day (or more) theme park wouldn't get much business from them.

Of course, they do have their own fair share of local-visiting tourists, but not as many as the official figures suggest.

[ads086]

I believe I was reading somewhere that the reason Disneyland Paris is no longer called EuroDisney is because the Disney name was synonymous with Americana - if you go to Disneyland you expect Main Street USA and Corn Dogs - not Croissants and Pastries as EuroDisney had when they opened.

I would love to have a Big Thunder Mountain-style ride, a Universal Singapore-style Mummy ride, a cross between Superman Escape with the pre-show and Jet Rescue with the low and twisty layout, and a Stunt Show as a start. I'd love a California Screamin' style long ride. I'd love to see some a la carte restaurants in my park to give a revenue stream from Annual Pass holders. A light show of an evening would be ideal - why not model off the most successful parks out there?

I'd build around Byron Bay region (to take advantage of NSW trading hours laws meaning late nights is workable) and run a shuttle to Coolangatta airport, and have an on-site Hotel. The advantage is that Coolangatta Airport does not have restrictions on the number of flights operating between it and other international ports in the way that Sydney and Brisbane both do.

[MickeyD]

Case in point!

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 minute ago, ClassifiedLlama said:

That doesnt say anything about getting up to 100,000 tourists each day. If that was true, then Gold coast would get around 35 MILLION tourists per year. 

Average of over 3 days per visit, 365 days a year, means you take the annual visitors and spread it across 121 (being 1/3 of the year to allow for spending 3 days each - which is conservatively ignoring the 0.8 of a day) and you'll end up with an average of 99,173 per day...

[Flynn_Smith]

1 minute ago, AlexB said:

Average of over 3 days per visit, 365 days a year, means you take the annual visitors and spread it across 121 (being 1/3 of the year to allow for spending 3 days each - which is conservatively ignoring the 0.8 of a day) and you'll end up with an average of 99,173 per day...

Well... that shut me up. 

[Prequel]

I would cover Wet And Wild with shade.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

4 minutes ago, Prequel said:

I would cover Wet And Wild with shade.

You'd want to be selective there... otherwise the pools would all be cold year round... and unless you walled it in, the wind would be positively FREEZING.

[Prequel]

Just now, AlexB said:

You'd want to be selective there... otherwise the pools would all be cold year round... and unless you walled it in, the wind would be positively FREEZING.

Cover the paths i mean.

[Brad2912]

2 hours ago, SunshineTom said:

In any one night the GC can have up to 100 000 tourists. 

Pfft... says who? Maybe a couple of times a year but not regularly 

1 hour ago, Tim Dasco said:

^ is there a source of that claim?

SunshineTom is the source. Of course. 

Edited December 5, 2016 by Brad2912

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

@Brad2912 if you read the following replies (including mine) you'll see that as an average, the 100,000 figure is pretty close to spot on.

[Brad2912]

Apologies to @SunshineTom 

seems excessive, but clearly I was wrong

[downunder]

If I was doing it to make money, I'd make it appeal primarily to families, but be broad enough to that any age can like it i.e. make it like Disney-like as much as the budget would allow.

If I was trying to please myself. I'd call it Mitch Hawker World and buy a carpark and fill it with Intamins and RMCs.

 

[jake_hunt]

Also, the visitors bureau states that delegates spend more time at the Gold Coast than any other Queensland tourist destination - not that it is the most visited, which I am fairly sure is Cairns, although I'm having a hard time finding any meaningful tourism stats...

[Ratbag93]

On ‎5‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 11:50 AM, YLFATEEKS said:

   The last time I looked it up nobody owned the rights to dinosaurs so why couldn’t you do a dinosaur park without the name and come up with your own ideas instead of coping a movie?

You might want to check with Clive Palmer about this first.....:p

[SunshineTom]

15 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

Apologies to @SunshineTom 

seems excessive, but clearly I was wrong

 

Think about how many high rises there are that are purely holiday rentals/hotel rooms. It does seem excessive but they have more than the capacity for 100 000. 

[Brad2912]

4 hours ago, SunshineTom said:

Think about how many high rises there are that are purely holiday rentals/hotel rooms. It does seem excessive but they have more than the capacity for 100 000. 

If I have admitted I was wrong and made a misjudgment, there is no need to continue to try & convince me I was wrong... 

[Slick]

I'd take the best parts of USJ & DisneySea and build a large new theme park resort out at near Caloundra. Build it around a large man-made lake that you can do shows and events from, integrate the resort and shopping directly into the front of the park Mira-Costa style, have multiple lands around the lake, some Australian, some more world themed or IP-themed, and most importantly of all i'd have a few multi-purpose showstages that could also have outside access so that small sections of the park can be used at night for entertainment independantly of the park (think having multiple gates to a park that also serve as hubs for things like Top Golf, Main Event, showstages for Cirque Du Soleil etc.).

Without a doubt i'd have a Gerstlauer Eurofighter or something new from Intamin or Mack. The drop tower that BGT has that faces the ground? Definitely on the list. If S&S ever get around to refining their 4th dimension product, i'd buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[Ranger]

On 5/12/2016 at 1:36 PM, Life said:

Western Sydney - 5 million people in the city and shit-tons of tourists...

Theme it to Australiana - Beach, Tropical Rainforest, Desert, and Bush zones. 

Make sure transport connections are solid for the new airport/rail.

Land would eat into a big chunk, so maybe 2-3 coasters and 10 flat rides.

Sorry to dig up a old forum but what you just described there is Wonderland.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Ranger
Typo.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

18 hours ago, Ranger said:

Sorry to dig up a old forum but what you just described there is Wonderland.

Wonderland had really poor transport connections (and is one of the contributing factors to it's low visitation issues). Its ride count was higher, and the themes were not the same at all.

If you're going to dig up graves - make sure you know which body you want to unearth!

[Jdude95]

42 minutes ago, AlexB said:

Wonderland had really poor transport connections (and is one of the contributing factors to it's low visitation issues). Its ride count was higher, and the themes were not the same at all.

If you're going to dig up graves - make sure you know which body you want to unearth!

When digging up relics, try to avoid accidentally digging up @AlexB

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I'm trying to sleep dammit!