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Potential New Universal UK Park

havaska said:
The rumour is that they want to get a small attraction open in London itself first. Think Horror Unleashed like they’re building in Vegas.

This could act as a preview centre.
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Makes perfect sense. London is a huge place with just under 13m living in the metropolitan area.
Not only that but it's a hugely visited City in Europe too from tourists. It used to be second behind Paris which I'm sure it probably still is.

I think a all year round Horror attraction would work very well.
 
Benjsh said:
Makes perfect sense. London is a huge place with just under 13m living in the metropolitan area.
Not only that but it's a hugely visited City in Europe too from tourists. It used to be second behind Paris which I'm sure it probably still is.

I think a all year round Horror attraction would work very well.
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It’s hard to judge how successful a Universal Horror attraction could be in London, without knowing what the concept involves. Also, the devil can be in the detail, for example which part of London it’s in etc. Also, would it be a temporary attraction until a park opens, or would they co-exist? If you had a permanent Universal Horror attraction in London as well as a theme park doing Horror Nights, they could cross pollinate, but they could also cannibalise each other’s attendance. It might depend partly on how similar the concepts are. If it were seen as an elaborate way to build excitement for a permanent park, then that shifts the debate.

The London Dungeons are very successful and the London Bridge Experience has been around for a long time now. Three permanent horror attractions would be a lot for one city, but with Universal’s brand and budget, I’m sure they could outgun The London Bridge Experience if they wanted to (not that I want to see independent attractions going under).

London’s a big city with a large population, a lot of wealth and quite a bit of tourism, and Halloween’s very popular here now.

On the flip side, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not and Kidzania both failed in London, despite being hugely popular elsewhere. I’d say Universal’s a much bigger brand here in the UK than either of those, with some stronger marketing channels. I can well believe that Universal’s could succeed where Ripley’s and Kidzania couldn’t. But we have seen that despite the size of the London market, competing with Merlin’s cluster and leverage is quite difficult.
 
It all of a sudden feels very real…and given universals recent pace at building parks we should all be very excited.

Although as we know, I’ll believe it when the diggers really move in.

I just really hope this lights a fire under Merlin, this could have been them if they’d raised the bar for arguably the past 20 years but they haven’t.

The worrying part for me is, who do I think this park most directly will compete with?

Alton Towers
 
One interesting detail I noticed in there is that they think that 35-40% of guests will travel to the resort by train.

I can’t help but think that this sounds a little bit optimistic. Perhaps my view is skewed by living a good 2-3 miles from a relatively infrequently used railway station, and by many existing parks in the UK not being overly close to railway stations, but I’d imagine that most would probably drive to a major park, no?

Universal thinks that 10% of guests would drive and a further 25% of guests would be driven by these drivers, equating to around 35% of guests travelling to the park by car overall. I trust Universal’s data, but this sounds a bit too small to me. I grant you that many international tourists probably wouldn’t drive, but we Brits are predominantly a nation of drivers!
 
Ash said:
It all of a sudden feels very real…and given universals recent pace at building parks we should all be very excited.

Although as we know, I’ll believe it when the diggers really move in.

I just really hope this lights a fire under Merlin, this could have been them if they’d raised the bar for arguably the past 20 years but they haven’t.

The worrying part for me is, who do I think this park most directly will compete with?

Alton Towers
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Very very likely to happen now (I thought it was fairly likely before anyway).

In terms of the effect on Alton Towers, it will hopefully be a good thing and force them into investing properly. It might see O'Neil booted pretty quickly as well if he is indeed behind the apparent delay to Horizon, a crazy decision if real and true. It's already been six years since the last major new ride - that's hardly upping your game, it's a regression.
 
I'm a little worried that there's not really a lot of room for the actual theme park. Still hoping we'll get a Super Nintendo World with the Donkey Kong coaster over yet another Harry Potter area which would be a huge waste of time, land and money here obviously
 
Matt N said:
One interesting detail I noticed in there is that they think that 35-40% of guests will travel to the resort by train.

I can’t help but think that this sounds a little bit optimistic. Perhaps my view is skewed by living a good 2-3 miles from a relatively infrequently used railway station, and by many existing parks in the UK not being overly close to railway stations, but I’d imagine that most would probably drive to a major park, no?

Universal thinks that 10% of guests would drive and a further 25% of guests would be driven by these drivers, equating to around 35% of guests travelling to the park by car overall. I trust Universal’s data, but this sounds a bit too small to me. I grant you that many international tourists probably wouldn’t drive, but we Brits are predominantly a nation of drivers!
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If there’s a direct, or semi-direct link to one of London’s main stations that can get there within an hour or so, then that % could be achieved, as London is where the bulk of tourists will arrive and is seemingly the only place in the UK that’s allowed to have good rail connections.
 
jesterrace989 said:
over yet another Harry Potter area which would be a huge waste of time, land and money here obviously
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See, I disagree that Harry Potter would be a poor choice. I know that Harry Potter lands are very commonplace in Universal parks around the world, but I think that a Harry Potter attraction in the home country of Harry Potter would be an absolute license to print money. Harry Potter is also a very quintessentially British IP which might help to win the domestic crowd over.

Whether Warner Bros would let them is another thing entirely, though... the studio tour in Watford isn’t a million miles away.
Mick said:
If there’s a direct, or semi-direct link to one of London’s main stations that can get there within an hour or so, then that % could be achieved, as London is where the bulk of tourists will arrive and is seemingly the only place in the UK that’s allowed to have good rail connections.
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that the Midland Main Line (which Wixams and Bedford railway stations are both on) is directly connected to London St Pancras.

You may also get some connections coming along the Marston Vale Line and East West Rail from Milton Keynes Central, which is directly connected to London Euston.
 
jesterrace989 said:
I'm a little worried that there's not really a lot of room for the actual theme park. Still hoping we'll get a Super Nintendo World with the Donkey Kong coaster over yet another Harry Potter area which would be a huge waste of time, land and money here obviously
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479 acres is a very big plot of land they could stick a portaventura sized park in there and still have 185 acres to play with.
 
George W said:
479 is a big plot of land they could stick a portaventura sized park in there and still have 185 acres to play with.
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Also bear in mind that Universal’s plan for the whole project is an eventual 700 acres if they can purchase the land to the southwest of the currently purchased land.

I wouldn’t be worried about the park size. They’ve left plenty of expansion room, and the existing Universal parks aren’t huge anyway; neither of the gates in Florida are much larger than about 100 acres.

For some perspective, this 479 acres figure would put Universal’s current land ownership at around the same size as the total land area occupied by the entirety of Alton Towers Resort. I don’t think space is a concern.
 
Personally I think there simply has to be something Harry Potter related, though I get that there’s probably isn’t a great deal they can do that would be new to a Universal park whilst still being mainstream enough to the wizarding world.
 
I just don’t see them paying out whatever WB ask for, they have so many other properties they can use. I seem to recall that the going thought is they don’t want to cannibalise the Orlando market either
 
Fingers crossed for another Harry Potter and the Motion Sickness Simulator Experience. Oh and one of those awful looking werewolf coasters Epic Universe is getting, to give Minifigure Speedway some competition.

Do a deal with Granada, Universal and recreate Granada Studios' Baker Street but with the Jeremy Brett fronted dark-ride this country deserves.
 
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Personally I'd prefer a Lord of the Rings area over Harry Potter but it would depend if they have those rumoured theme park rights.

I think the Car travel figures may be offset by park & rides schemes in the surrounding area which means technically they are traveling by bus or train.

I think there is a very strong change this happens now
 
I think the existence of the Harry Potter studio tour isn't that important, if the park makes the 2029 opening that's already 17 years the tour will have been open for. End of the day I'm sure Universal will be able to come to some arrangement, the licensing rights and then the percentage of the merchandising will make it worth both parties interests in coming to an agreement.
 
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