Volume 1, No. 7. May 4, 2001
Gold and oil
After weathering two years of attendance-hindering obstacles, the amusement properties in Gold Coast, Australia, are coming off a stellar season and heading into a strong shoulder and winter season, thanks to a rising tide of Middle East clientele.
Australia on the whole gets more than 50,000 visitors from the Middle East each year, and the Gold Coast Tourism Bureau says 17,000 Arab country tourists visited that region in 2000. The bureau forecasts a 20 percent rise in that sector this year.
"For them it’s a nice place to come, a good family destination, to get away from the heat," said David Luxton, communication executive at Wet ‘n’ Wild Water World, one of the three properties comprising the Warner Village Theme Parks. "They tend to bring the extended family, rent an apartment for three or four weeks, and do lots of shopping."
They also visit the three Warner parks in increasing numbers, Luxton said, and the parks have taken extra measures to cater to this particular clientele. Both Sea World and Warner Brothers Movie World serve halal meals using ritually butchered meats at their restaurants, and both provide prayer rooms in shady, quiet sections of their parks with arrows pointing toward Mecca. Wet ‘n’ Wild, meanwhile, sees its share of fully clothed Muslim families enjoying all the rides.
Luxton said the Muslim clientele has appreciated these amenities. "We’ve seen some repeat visitors already," he said. Last week, the Warner Village group’s international marketing manager, Peter Doggett, accompanied a tourism road show through the Middle East, including the Arab Travel Mart in Dubai. "They’re starting to develop some real relationships," Luxton said.
The Gold Coast group is also seeing the Pacific Rim market rebound from its late ’90s currency crash. Japan is still flat, Luxton said, but China is proving to be a lucrative growth market, and Singapore is so strong the parks are now considering that region part of its domestic market.
Overall, the Warner Village parks saw strong gates this past season, a nice change from last year’s performance, which was depressed by the Y2K computer bug and then the country’s new 10 percent Goods and Services Tax, both of which kept people from traveling.
Starting in September, though, business shot up. The Summer Olympics helped boost tourism in the Gold Coast as Sydney residents fled their city for the duration of the games. The Olympics also gave the Gold Coast worldwide exposure from television crews doing local color stories, and the parks have started seeing the results of that exposure. Plus, all three parks installed new attractions in November: the Roadrunner roller coaster at Warner Brothers Movie World, Polar Bear Shores at Sea World, and the six-person raft ride Mammoth Falls at Wet ‘n’ Wild.
More expansion is planned next fall, Luxton said. In the meantime, the parks seem to have struck oil looking for a way to keep their gates strong through the soft season.
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