0835 Leisure Summer 08_aw.indd - HLL Humberts Leisure

Day Visitor AttractionsA rollercoaster rideThe visitor enterprise business is a very diversesector which includes country parks, farms,gardens, historic properties, leisure/theme parks,museums, art galleries, steam/heritage railways,visitor/heritage centres, wildlife attractions,workplaces (such as distilleries, vineyards,breweries etc) and even places of worship.The UK private attractions sector is dominated by MerlinEntertainments Group who acquired the Tussauds Group in March2007 from Dubai International Capital (DIC) for £1.03bn, makingthem the second largest visitor attraction company in the world,topped only by Disney. In May 2008 it was reported that MerlinEntertainments acquired the London Aquarium from County HallEntertainments for an undisclosed sum. In addition to the sale price,Merlin has negotiated a 35 year lease on the site. The attractionwill be rebranded and become part of Merlin’s Sealife chain ofaquariums. Just days before the deal was announced, Merlin revealedthat it is to open a Legoland in Dubai.Recent corporate activity in the UK has centred around the Spanishoperator Aspro (Europe’s leading ‘park’ company) who in March2008 purchased Oakwood Theme Park in South West Wales. Thisrepresents one of the largest single theme park sales to take placein recent years. Aspro currently operates 32 leisure parks in sevencountries, made up of 22 water parks, 2 marine zoos, 4 latestgeneration aquariums, 2 animal parks and 2 amusement parks.Following on from the Oakwood deal, Aspro acquired Blue ReefLeisure who operate four aquaria in Hastings, Portsmouth, Newquayand Tynemouth, together with Smugglers Adventure in Hastings.The company now plans to open a fifth aquarium in Bristol in 2009.The gap between the two tiers of operators – basically the Big 6Parks and the rest – has widened and smaller parks are going tofind it increasingly difficult to compete in the future. After Merlin,the sector is predominantly made up of smaller groupings such asthose within the Gulliver’s, Gibbs, Heritage Great Britain and Crealyportfolios, or privately owned single attractions.Fundamentally over the last 2 years the day visitor attraction sectoris reeling from a poor year in 2007 largely as a result of the sameunpredictable weather that gifted them a fine year in 2006. Themepark admissions for example in the UK fell by an estimated 600,000on the previous year in 2007 to 12.7 million revenues down from274 million to 259 million (source Mintel). With the tremendouspressures that have been exerted on the industry particularly throughhigher overheads and declining visitor numbers it is likely that manyattractions will struggle to survive in the next 5 years particularlyif the pattern of weather seen in 2007 is repeated in coming years.The parks and attractions that will survive and prosper will bethose that can retain tight controls on their cost base while at thesame time investing in new rides and attractions or the thoughtfulrefurbishment of existing attractions, together with proactive targetedmarketing. But this investment must be well structured, as ourexperience shows that the public are becoming more discerning andcertainly the factors that influence visitation and repeat visitationto attractions is changing. The need to create “value for money”and “authenticity” and engage the public in an “experience” areof primary importance, as is the necessity to educate. For anyattractions with animals, increasingly the public’s expectations nowcentre on the scale, size and overall general quality of the enclosure,aviaries, tanks etc. In addition the principals of conservation,education and research, good animal husbandry and welfare are ofparamount importance and ultimately underpin the success of thistype of venue.30 Summer 2008