Peppa Pig World
Coen Nieuwenstein (left) from ARC bv, Paultons Park Managing Director Richard Mancey (centre)
and RMA’s Rick Matthews pictured in Peppa Pig World
“The retail element is going very well,” he continued.
“We have some unique items in the shop and are learning all the time. In year two we’ll have a better offering and will know more of what people want. But it’s going really well at the moment.” Certainly one of the
most noticeable and impressive aspects to Peppa Pig World is the landscaping around the area. In the cartoon, many buildings and other elements are built on top of grassy mounds and this aspect has been faithfully recreated in the design as a key part of the theming. “All the landscaping was
done in house by our own team,” said Mancey, “and they’ve done a great job. It will all mature and change
in time and will therefore get even better.” As in the cartoon series and books, all the buildings,
walls and other features have been carefully designed to accurately reflect what young fans see and ultimately associate with, so wavy and crooked walls and buildings are the order of the day (where possible) rather than everything being perfectly straight and level, something else that gave the designers and builders a real challenge. The immediate success of Peppa Pig World is reflected in
the increase in new visitors to the park and where guests are travelling from, as well as the fact that local hotels and others offering accommodation in the vicinity are fully booked up. “The hotels in the area are rammed,”
said Mancey. “There’s just no capacity in accommodation around the park. We are getting a lot of new visitors, especially from out of the area, and there is a big increase in two day visits, especially through our Paultons Breaks offer. People are doing Peppa Pig World one day and the rest of the park the next. We are also seeing an increase in numbers during the school term time because families with pre-school children want to go on
32 InterPark September–October 2011
their holidays outside the main school holiday time. This is something we hoped would happen and it has.” With such a massively successful new area on their
hands, as would be the case anywhere else, one would be forgiven for wondering if this might overshadow the rest of the park, and it is an observation Mancey and his team are well aware of. “We have to manage the expectations of older children
and visitors,” he notes. “Obviously in the first year Peppa Pig World is the main marketing focus but once it is established we will back off a bit and continue to focus on the Paultons Park brand. We have to be aware of this. The plan is very much to ensure we offer a rounded offering to kids up to the age of 13/14 and something different, which we do. Our Cobra coaster, for example, is still the only one of its kind in the UK. We’ll probably look to do something big again in a couple of years.” What that might be is anyone’s guess, but for the time
being Peppa Pig World is the star of the show at Paultons Park. It has given the venue a new string to its bow - and in a big, big way - and, like Thomas Land at Drayton Manor, has boosted numbers massively. Significantly it has also ensured a much larger catchment area for visitors – quite simply the whole of the UK, if not further afield. As all the landscaping matures, the overall look and feel of the area will only improve too, adding further to the attraction. Boy, are they on to a winner!
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