Cedar Fair was on the verge
of a merger with Apollo Global Management, but it fell through
WHILE MERLIN AND COMPAGNIE DES ALPES GO FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH, US THEME PARKS SEEM TO HAVE BEEN IMPACTED BY THE RECESSION, PARTICULARLY THE HIGHLY LEVERAGED OPERATORS
reposition itself away from the teenage market and to encourage families to stay for longer. A similar story is true for European theme park operators.
Compagnie des Alpes – with its portfolio of theme parks, nature and animal parks and tourist attractions – saw strong attendances together with growth in revenues. Total visitors to its leisure parks increased by 2.6 per cent to 9.9 million in 2009. The company achieved sales of €248m (£218m, $332m) in 2009
compared with €234m (£206m, $313.5m) in 2008, an increase of six per cent. Within these numbers, Parc Asterix saw its visitors increase by 1.2 per cent to just over 1.8 million. Revenues grew by 8.5 per cent, reaching €74.3m (£65.3m, $99.5m). Only the fi rm’s Dutch operations witnessed declining admissions and revenues. Euro Disney reported a similar story, with attendance levels
increasing, but secondary spend declining. In fact, the company witnessed record attendance levels of 15.4 million with hotel occu- pancy levels of 87.3 per cent. Targeted offers, leveraging the Disney brand and continual prod- uct innovation enabled Euro Disney to achieve this growth in visitor numbers, predominately from the French and Belgian markets. In terms of secondary spends, both average spend per guest and average spend per room were down fi ve per cent in 2009 com-
pared to 2008. Overall revenues fell to €1.2m (£1m, $1.6m) from €1.3m (£1.1m, $1.7m) in 2008 – a decline of 7.1 per cent.
THE US
US theme parks, conversely, seem to have been impacted by the recession, particularly the highly leveraged operators.
AM 2 2010 ©cybertrek 2010
UK THEME PARKS MARKET, BY VOLUME AND VALUE, 2004 – 2014
400 350 300 250 200 150 100 500 0
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
REVENUES
* REVENUES ARE STATED AT CURRENT PRICES
ADMISSION
SOURCE: MINTEL, 2010
Six Flags was highly leveraged following a refi nancing in June
2007 and fi led for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in June 2009. As at the 31 December 2007, the company had total indebtedness of $2.26 billion (£1.4bn, 1.7bn). This high level of indebtedness – combined with its ill-fated marketing alliance with Dubai Holdings and lower trading levels with both admissions and average spends per head falling – left the company struggling to make its interest repayments. Chapter 11 is allowing Six Flags to restructure itself and the company is hopeful of exiting Chapter 11 in April 2010. Ohio theme park company Cedar Fair, which owns 11 amuse- ment parks and seven waterparks across North America, is also highly leveraged with $1.7b ($1.1bn, 1.3bn) of debt.
Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital
65
REVENUES (£NM)*
ADMISSIONS
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