How long can parks survive with zero revenue?

[Mr Pearse]

I think going over when they will reopen is no help as no one knows. But they will lose I think at least 10 attractions maybe more for the rest of the year.

 

[Tim]

I was having a think about a comment I posted on another thread. Could this lockdown have bigger financial implications to Merlin then first thought?. Regardless of when they will reopen if you have 30odd attractions in the uk and you get zero income for a minimum of 5 months that can’t be good in the long run. When you think about the cost they will still have to shell out for everyday can’t be cheap.

I've been trying to make this point for sometime. Having more attractions puts Merlin at a much greater risk than a company with just one park which can sustain itself.
Don't forgetting all the attractions Merlin run globally that are also shut.

 

[Mr Pearse]

I've been trying to make this point for sometime. Having more attractions puts Merlin at a much greater risk than a company with just one park which can sustain itself.
Don't forgetting all the attractions Merlin run globally that are also shut.

As I just mentioned even if some places do open for the summer season I can’t see everywhere opening just in my personal opinion as always they won’t be able to open possible most or all of the south bank attractions, discovery centres, dungeons, Blackpool tower and some sea life centres while social distancing is in place. Now to lose that many attractions and have no income for possibly till the end of the year will be draining. Fine the parks could reopen but just think how much they will have to pay for the upkeep of all the attractions that have to stay closed. With that many sealife centers I Doubt it’s cheap To feed and care for everyone. It all Adds up In the end.

 

[Tim]

Merlin will reopen all of its attractions at the earliest opportunity. They can't afford not to. If they don't reopen they will close.

I can't say when the restrictions will be lifted by the government but it'll be sooner than you think and Merlin won't be waiting around to avoide the summer rush.
Germany have already started lifting restrictions (Europa is due to open by the end of the month) so I expect Heide Park to be making annoncments when their area also lifts them.

 

[Mr Pearse]

It’s fine when they let places open but if they struggle to social distance then they have no chance of reopening.

 

[Islander]

It’s fine when they let places open but if they struggle to social distance then they have no chance of reopening.

Very doubtful that they will struggle with social distancing though, given how many other European parks have already shown the plans their putting into place to ensure it


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[Mr Pearse]

I’m on about the indoor midways not the parks.

 

[bluesonichd]

I think its been said, but whos going to police them with social distancing, the covid police are not going to be there every day with their megaphone shouting at people

 

[speedy]

I think its been said, but whos going to police them with social distancing, the covid police are not going to be there every day with their megaphone shouting at people

The park staff might. As soon as people break the rules, no doubt they'll be photographed and the Daily Mail will run a story about it! That would be the last thing Towers want.

 

[Mr Pearse]

I think it will come down to common sense. As I mentioned above I’m more on about the midways and I think if they tried opening somewhere that social distancing is not possible I doubt it will be open for long. Places could open for summer season but I can’t see a lot of the merlins uk portfolio being available for a while.

 

[Matt N]

I think a situation like this could be where Merlin’s huge international portfolio could be of aid to them. Even if the UK attractions don’t open for a while, a number of their foreign attractions have announced plans to reopen within the next few weeks, and I think some of their attractions are even operating now!

However, I still think that parks could open again by the main summer holiday boom provided they can exhibit adequate social distancing measures. And for those who think that the parks will be too deserted when they reopen to warrant reopening; Shanghai Disneyland put 24,000 tickets on sale for their reopening day on Monday and they sold out within minutes. To me, that suggests that parks could do fairly well once they reopen!

 

[bluesonichd]

we will be in lockdown till June, only then will they start to reopen things, the parks summer season is long gone .

 

[Mr Pearse]

Obviously the world wide attractions will help some bit. But as I mentioed in an earlier post if the midways don’t open for 5/8 months after they closed. How much do you think it’s costing them everyday to maintain every attraction. Food for animals isn’t cheap and then it’s the welfare of all its sea animals. It’s a big big chunk that will lose and will keep losing without income. It’s fine to think the parks will save Merlin but if they don’t open till August/September and the fact they will have to limit numbers. It’s going to hit merlin for many years you don’t just go back into the green overnight. this will take atleast 2 years to recover from at least. Any company that runs 30 attractions and then loses over half of them for possibly 7/8 months with no income and still paying out costs everyday to run them and pay staff etc. You don’t recover overnight so expect cuts where cuts can be made next year.

 

[Islander]

I don’t think all midways can be treated equally in this.

We can all agree that the Dungeons, Shreks Adventure, and any others midways like that will pose a great challenge to social distancing - after all, they rely on groups of people being confined to small areas.

Something like Sea Life, however, I’d argue could be adapted to take social distancing into account easier than supermarkets and the like, as they are walkthrough attractions with essentially one direction of travel. Limit the flow of guests entering at any one time, and social distancing won’t be hard at all. Same could potentially be applied to something like Madame Tussaud’s, though that’d need a bit more work.


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[Mr Pearse]

Without counting sealife centres. I think the only sealifes not to open will be the smaller ones I think the bigger ones will take time to get social distancing right. But even not counting sealife they would lose. Five dungeons, 2 discovery centres, Blackpool tower and shrek and that’s just at top of my head. I think Warwick castle will open but will be completely bog standard.

 

[RicketyCricket]

I think its been said, but whos going to police them with social distancing, the covid police are not going to be there every day with their megaphone shouting at people

 

[RoyJess]

The park staff might. As soon as people break the rules, no doubt they'll be photographed and the Daily Mail will run a story about it! That would be the last thing Towers want.

I can't see Alton enforcing the rules, they rarely enforce the queue jumping or smoking policies. Enforcing social distancing on non alcohol days will be fun too

 

[Mr Pearse]

Considering 78% of merlins revenue is generated by legoland or midways. I can’t see why people would expect if the parks opens that would help merlin. Now in my eyes just obviously a personal opinion I think if I was merlin And next year was another bomb of a year for what ever reason. I’d look to offload to theme parks division and push and open more midways. Obviously it don’t work like that if anyone remembers when shrek opened they said they wanted to build another 14 or something like that in 9 years.

 

[John_P]

I think a big issue for parks now when they do open will be that the majority of the customers could well be season pass holders whilst the usual group bookings and family annual trips stay away.
Plus if the parks reopen but the hotels still have to remain closed it'll also reduce the amount of potential visitors as well as a major area of income.

 

[Adam H]

Reading Today via a couple of sources that the infection rate in Germany is rising since they relaxed the restrictions. Not sure if they may need to rethink or not but may not be good news in terms of parks opening there which then doesn't look good for parks here in the near future.