TOP TEAM
NICK MACKENZIE, MANAGING DIRECTOR, PROPERTY AND DEVELOPMENT GROUP (PDG)
What’s your role?
PDG’s focus is the development of both our existing sites and new attractions and hotels for the group. The property side involves managing relationships with land- lords, negotiating leases on new midway attractions and coordinating planning per- mission for new developments, particularly theme park rides and hotels. The aim for our development side is to
get maximum effi ciency for all the capital expenditure the group has on new attrac- tions. Probably the biggest area of PDG is what we call site search, where we look for new midway attraction locations. We have a team which goes out pre- dominantly to America, Asia and Europe, analyses those markets to see whether they’d suit our midway attractions and then locates and negotiates deals with land owners and landlords for those new sites. I then have quite a big team which project manages the development and our capital expenditures, so we’re very much focused on getting real value for money.Our view is that we’re the best in the world at getting
With Madame Tussauds, it’s wax fi gures, at Legoland Discovery Centre it’s the Lego models and at Sea Life it’s the marine crea- tures. We have a team that looks after each of those three elements in terms of making the wax fi gures, making the Lego models and the care and acquisition of fi sh and marine creatures. On top of that, we have a team that looks
after our hotel development. A hotel will open at Legoland Windsor in 2011 and another is planned for Legoland California. The fi nal piece in my little jigsaw is the fi nance team that manages all the capital expenditure that we’ve put in place during the whole of this development process.
value for our capital expenditure and the quality of our offer.
What work do you do on the product side?
We have a team which looks after the crea- tive design that sits behind all the new attractions, new rides and developments. All our attractions, particularly midway, are reliant on some sort of special feature.
MARK FISHER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, RESORT THEME PARKS
What’s your role?
We look after the resort theme parks (other than Legoland). There are six in the group – Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures, Heide Park, Gardaland and Warwick Castle. I look at the quality of the day to day opera- tion – how we deliver on our promises to visitors; how we’re trading in a particular period; capital investment; staffi ng issues: the whole management of the business. I’m also responsible for their longer term development strategy. Our objective is to turn all our resort theme parks into two- to three-day short break destinations with the addition of accommodation and second gate midway attractions. I work very closely with PDG. We’ll be
telling them up to four years in advance what we want to do and the money we have to invest, so we’ll be asking what they can do to help us fulfi l those needs.
What’s different about Merlin?
I believe Merlin parks offer a combination of some of the best leisure experiences that people will have, at a price they believe is value for money. A theme park’s not the cheapest day out, and many times we’ve all been criticised as an industry for
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What are your main priorities?
The US and Asia are the real focus for us in terms of future development. The big- gest priority is getting the pipeline of new sites for our midway rollout; we look to get sites and deals agreed as early as pos- sible – maybe 18 months out – to ensure that those sites are ready to go and we can develop them effectively and effi ciently.
What are the trends in resort theme parks?
It’s increasing the scope of the offer – peo- ple are looking to prolong their experience. In the last few years we’ve put a Sea Life Centre second gate in both Legoland California and Gardaland. People are buy- ing tickets for both and spending two or three days there. At Alton Towers we have a waterpark and a spa in the hotel, which encourages a longer stay. And we’ve just put a Dungeon into Warwick Castle, which serves to increase the dwell time again. It’s a circle – the more second gates you
our pricing, but pound for pound, if you look at the entertainment you get, it’s prob- ably better than the alternatives – sporting events, pop concerts, the theatre.
What are hotel occupancy rates?
I can’t disclose fi gures, but they’re pretty high – the hotels are maxed out in peak season. Leisure stays have been very good during the recession, thanks to the stayca- tion affect, particularly in Germany. Most people stay two to three nights. The cor- porate side has been tough, but we’re still out-performing the rest of the market.
Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital
have, the longer people will stay, and the more people you get to come and stay for a number of days, the more opportunities you’ve got to put those second gates in.
Any more hotels planned?
We’ve got planning permission at Windsor, Thorpe Park and Legoland California for hotels and we’re in the process of looking at planning permission for another couple of sites. Alternatively, we might do more holiday villages like the ones in Heide Park and Legoland Deutschland that people stay and camp in. They’re low investment compared with a hotel and, particularly in Germany, they’ve done very well. ●
AM 2 2010 ©cybertrek 2010
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