FINANCE
Some theme parks thrived last year, thanks to the staycation trend, but others were not as fortunate. Deloitte LLP’s Nigel Bland and Liz Smith detail how the industry performed during 2009 and what we can expect in 2010
TREND
leisure sectors were particularly affected, with a number of high profi le companies entering administration. But in the UK, the recession wasn’t all bad news, as a number
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of the trends caused by the economic downturn have had a posi- tive effect. Primarily, 2009 was the year of the staycation – people choosing to holiday in the UK and take more day trips – albeit that their budgets were reduced. This, coupled with a weak pound driving growth in inbound tourism to the UK, means the number of people visiting UK theme parks has grown strongly over the last couple of years. In 2009, 13.8 million people visited theme parks in the UK; an increase of three per cent from 2008. In the UK, rev- enues grew to £315m (US$480m, 359m) in 2009 compared to £308m ($470m, 351m) in 2008. In real terms, revenues were fl at, refl ecting the fact that while people were visiting more, their spend on secondary items declined slightly. Operators were able to maximise visits by continuing to invest in
new rides and attractions and placing an increased emphasis on accommodation, thereby driving multi-day visits. This made 2009 a year of focusing on existing operations and cash generation.
EUROPE
Merlin Entertainments outperformed the sector as a whole, con- tinuing to go from strength to strength. In 2009, the company saw 38.5 million people visit its attractions, an increase of 9.7 per
cent. Annual revenue increased by 16.1 per cent to £769m ($1.2bn, 876) while EBITDA grew by 16.6 per cent to £238.6m ($364m, 272m) in 2009. Merlin has also announced that it’s consider- ing building a third hotel at Alton Towers as part of its strategy to
t’s easy to feel incredibly negative when looking back on 2009. Many economies went into recession and consumer confi - dence plummeted as unemployment levels rose. The retail and
While the recession had an adverse affect on many leisure busi- nesses, the theme park industry came out of it largely unscathed
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Euro Disney saw attendance levels increase, but secondary spend decline. In fact, it witnessed record attendance levels in 2009
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