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Coronavirus: Impact on Theme Parks

rob666

Hyper Poster
The Hot Ice show has been a massive drain on the parks resources for at least forty years.
It is the park owners pet project, and despite it losing money like a sieve for decades, she still throws money at it.
They cant even fill the Arena on VIP premiere night, I know because I have been offered tickets for a fiver.
A bit less spent on a show that is usually less than 50% full, and we might have had a few extra decent rides.
I imagine it loses at least a million pounds a year.
Mandys vanity project.
 

Ian

From CoasterForce
Staff member
Administrator
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It’s been a while since anybody predicted Oakwood and Drayton will go bust. It is indeed a strange time.
 
Maybe?

Look forward to The Andrex Adventure Park or Carex Hand Sanitiser Land.

Why not? We have already had at least one ride sponsored by a bar of soap.....

I suspect we would start seeing more sponsors showing up from companies whos products or services are not considered essential and have therefore had a huge reduction in revenue. If the parks manage to open up before summer starts and people come flooding in having been surrounded by the same 4 walls for weeks on end, it would make sense to try and get your product into as many peoples faces as possible. Now that also depends on the parks themselves charging a fair price otherwise companies may think screw it.

As for parks changing hands completely, I would say it is unlikely unless the park hasn't made any money for a few years. A park wide sponsorship deal would be more likely though.
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
Skyline Park has announced that they hope to now open on 1st May, rather than the previously announced 19th April date. Originally the park would have been opening on 4th April.

I guess the other German parks will follow up soon with another postponement announcement. There was no way any of them were going to be opening on the 19th April anyway, and even 1st May is still an optimistic date to aim for.

I think the whole setting an opening date is a somewhat sceptical move though, as the opening dates will inevitably keep getting moved back until the government deem it safe to open. For example, there is no way towers is opening on the 25th April as the UK will (most likely) still be in lockdown at that point. And even if we are out of lockdown, social distancing measures are going to be slowly released over a number of months, not everything lifted straight away as that will cause another wave of the outbreak.

I personally think setting overly-optimistic opening dates (for example the German parks saying 19th April bar skyline now) is a move to try and push ticket sales and hotel booking sales. As people are no longer entitled to a refund if the park has to remain closed, only allowed a rescheduling of the dates.

I don't think any parks (bar potentially some in Asia) will be opening this month at all.
 

TommyAlex

Mega Poster
Any UK parks setting an opening date before July might as well announce a new date now to avoid the inevitable dissapointment. Even July is pushing it. Things reopening post-lockdown will be gradual, and considering they're non-essential and places where large crowds are packed into a space, theme parks are hardly going to be a priority when restrictions are eased off.

How big of an impact do Halloween events have on a park's earnings for the year? Hopefully the world will be in a better place by then, and as these events seem to be massively popular for some of the bigger parks, I wonder if any parks would see it as justifiable to reopen - even if at least half of the season has been missed - to cash in rather than wait until next year?
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
Any UK parks setting an opening date before July might as well announce a new date now to avoid the inevitable dissapointment. Even July is pushing it. Things reopening post-lockdown will be gradual, and considering they're non-essential and places where large crowds are packed into a space, theme parks are hardly going to be a priority when restrictions are eased off.

I think dependent on the country different parks will be allowed to reopen at different times. In my opinion, the UK have not handled this well, and therefore we should expect the UK parks to be shut for longer. Asian countries (Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Japan etc) and Germany, Poland and to some extent Austria (bad start but extremely good measures came in place very quickly) have handled the outbreak much better and have it much more under control than the likes of USA, UK, France, Italy & Spain.

Therefore, we can expect to see those countries who have handled the outbreak better, loosen the restrictions first. I could easily see German parks reopening mid may- early June, whereas UK parks June does not look at all realistic. The real question for me though is whether there will still be travel restrictions in place, for example if German parks do indeed open mid May, will visitors from other countries be allowed to visit or will they solely be open to locals for the first period of time.
 

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
^That's an interesting point to raise. For instance Europa Park nevermind guests, a large portion of the workforce are from France (around 1100 if I remember right). If the borders haven't yet reopened without them the park couldn't really open, or they would have to have a limited offering spreading German employees thinly across the park. Same would go for their water park Rulantica.
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
I don't think this virus cares if you lift restrictions or not, it will continue to spread since it already has done to most countries around the world. Internal hotspots and people travelling to and from those will be just as much of a problem as international travel.

I don't really agree with this point so much. China is there or thereabouts reached a level of stabilisation where they have minimal new cases, and they are trying to reduce it to zero new cases. If you have zero new cases over a period of time, then it is safe for life to resume to normal in that particular country. The issue then comes if you are letting people into that country who have travelled elsewhere and may have picked up the virus. That is why countries like China, also Poland etc have introduced measures that if you are returning to those countries you must stay in an enforced(by police) 14 day quarantine where you must stay in your house and not even allowed to step into your garden. This can then prevent the introduction of any new cases into a country.

Germany has had an extremely vigilant testing regime, testing 500,000 members of the public a week for the virus, they have managed to identify cases early on and therefore there are going to be far less unknown cases than in countries like the UK. They have managed to "flatten the curve" as only have 1/3 of the deaths of the UK but have identified 3x as many cases (which means with the UK only doing 40,000 tests a week there are many cases left unidentified). As they have managed to flatten the curve, life in Germany will be able to return to normality to some extent much faster than in the UK. This means leisure places like gyms, pubs, clubs and theme parks can slowly be introduced into every day life (with relevant measures in place) at a sooner date than in countries which had initially slower reactions. If you reach a point where new daily infections are on the decline the country will start to stabilise until you reach a point of no new daily infections, as long as your border remains closed, you aren't letting new infections into the country and people entering the country have to take part in an enforced 14 day quarantine, otherwise this could cause a second wave.

The German government aren't treating more spacious parks like Europa Park any differently to parks on a smaller footprint like Phantasialand. They have advised all the German parks of the same opening date (20 April) to initially aim for, regardless of the size of the park. Whilst I still don't feel that is too realistic, the German government have managed this virus very well and therefore feels much more trustworthy than other countries which had really delayed responses.

^That's an interesting point to raise. For instance Europa Park nevermind guests, a large portion of the workforce are from France (around 1100 if I remember right). If the borders haven't yet reopened without them the park couldn't really open, or they would have to have a limited offering spreading German employees thinly across the park. Same would go for their water park Rulantica.

This is where the problem lies; I can see the parks having to move forward onto some sort of "pre-booking" system, where they are only allowed a certain number of guests in the park per day to keep everything under control. When europa does manage to reopen, they may only be allowed to take German visitors for the first few weeks and visitors from other countries may be banned from the park (and the country). If this is the case, there is also less demand for workers as there are less visitors in the park (therefore less retail staff are needed at one time, less trains needed on the rides as throughputs can be much lower etc).

With this whole virus situation, there is the struggle to balance between health and safety and saving the economy of countries. If workers (from France) are travelling across the border to go to work so that they can earn a wage and afford to survive essentially, then officials would probably permit that sort of essential travel. Testing could also be carried out on those up to 1100 workers from France going to work in the park to ensure none of them are bringing the virus between countries (Germany's testing has been very advanced and we hope over the next few weeks other countries can bring their tests up to an appropriate scale as well). However, I could definitely see for the first few weeks there being a blanket ban on any international visitors to the park as there are travel restrictions between borders.
 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
Possibly a different effect of the virus that we haven't really spoken about (if we have I missed it) I imagine currently most steel fabricators will be running at seriously reduced capacity if not shut down completely. This also goes for the coaster companies themselves.

I already know of one designer at a major coaster firm who's had the virus already and while I am sure they'll be able to work from home to a certain extent everything will probably be moving somewhat slower. It will also be hard for employees to get out to parks for survey work etc.

We could see some delays to already announced and planned future attractions as backlogs build up at steel fabrication plants or things on the designing side slow down.
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
This virus originally spread from 1 person contracting it from some type of wildlife animal. There was some evidence this week where people stayed contagious for over 30 days. The restrictions are only there to reduce to spread, not to prevent it.

There are no zero new cases over a period of time anywhere yet. People who claim that are most likely lying for some specific reason. Germany has more cases than China (supposedly)?
China's figures are not accurate, whereas Germany's figures have much more validity to them. The only two countries in the world who have done sufficient testing are South Korea and Germany, and therefore are the only two countries you can actually look at to have accurate figures.

I have not seen anything about people staying contagious for over 30 days but if that is indeed true, it just shows that the UK advice of self isolation for 7 days has no validity to it whatsoever.

Germany also has a much more robust healthcare system and much more available beds and ventilators than pretty much any other country worldwide, which means that they are much more prepared to deal with the situation.

This is just based on the research I have done but that's why I'm inclined to believe Germany will be able to return to a sense of normality before most other countries around Europe, and therefore can hope/expect the parks to reopen earlier.

I would expect the USA parks to be some of the last to reopen, as unfortunately the impact of the virus across the US is going to be absolutely devastating. :(
 

spicy

Giga Poster
This virus originally spread from 1 person contracting it from some type of wildlife animal. There was some evidence this week where people stayed contagious for over 30 days. The restrictions are only there to reduce to spread, not to prevent it.

There are no zero new cases over a period of time anywhere yet. People who claim that are most likely lying for some specific reason. Germany has more cases than China (supposedly)?

The China Wet markets have begun to reopen now too, won’t post the articles for reference as they have some shocking images of animal cruelty in them.

So if it can spread that easily I suppose we can potentially look forward to COVID-[insert year here] at some point too, which is just fantastic.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
The China Wet markets have begun to reopen now too, won’t post the articles for reference as they have some shocking images of animal cruelty in them.

So if it can spread that easily I suppose we can potentially look forward to COVID-[insert year here] at some point too, which is just fantastic.
On the flip side of that, China has now banned the consumption of wildlife, and Shenzhen recently became the first Chinese city to ban the consumption of cats and dogs.
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
On the flip side of that, China has now banned the consumption of wildlife, and Shenzhen recently became the first Chinese city to ban the consumption of cats and dogs.
They might have banned it but it doesn’t mean it won’t still continue illegally.

Remember these sorts of things aren’t just a tradition in China, they happen in other Asian countries too. And it is a small minority of the population who partake in these sorts of activities, and reportedly slowly being phased out.
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
In the short term IF theme parks open early summer, wherever that may be, I can only see that happening with respecting this virus a lot thus virtual queuing, reduced max capacity on rides and in the parks themselves. It probably won't be a lot of fun when parks do open unless this virus has disappeared like Sars sort of did (unlikely I guess) or there is a vaccine or at minimum a good treatment that can save more people who get very ill with this horrible nightmare.

Virtual queueing would be a good idea, and also guest numbers allowed into the park would have to be seriously limited to prevent other key areas getting crowded. Virtual reality attractions and indoor/outdoor shows with seated areas would probably need to be cut as well, although shows such as aquanura at Efteling would probably still be able to run as people can keep their distance from one another. 4D cinemas closed too probably as well.

I think the reason SARS disappeared was it wasn't very infectious, whereas COVID is much more infectious. I guess they kind of managed to prevent SARS spreading too far as they could link back the infection chain and it didn't get passed on very easily. As this is so much more infectious, it is unlikely to die out on its own, and also it's been proven rising temperatures do not kill the virus or prevent transmission from person to person as well. Vaccine looks like it won't be available until next year and don't really know about how effective treatments can work against viruses.

The antibody tests in theory were a great idea but in testing in the UK only proved to have 70% accuracy so they technically promised something and then took it away from us when they found out it wasn't as effective as they thought. If and when something like this does get rolled out, having the antibodies means you're technically immune to the virus and therefore you wouldn't have to follow as harsh restrictions as those who had been infected.
 

Trax

Hyper Poster
I think virtual queueing might only be suitable for larger parks with wide paths and plenty of space, and even then, the amount of people inside the park will likely have to be limited to avoid overcrowded midways.
Parks like Alton towers, Heidepark or Europapark might be able to, but packed parks like Liseberg, Grönalund or Phantasialand won't be able to. If you have ever visited Phantasialand on a day with medium crowds (usually 20 minutes queue for Taron, other rides up to 15 minutes) you know how crowded the pathes will be, and how overcrowded the whole park feels.
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
Further to what we discussed earlier, there is a little bit of discussion on phantafriends that it could be possible that the German parks reopen, but entry is only allowed if you have an “immunisation passport”

Ie. You’ve been infected and recovered and are now technically immune to the virus, so life can go back to normal.

Don’t know how practical it would be though as you have to think about your workers and surely not all of the workers will be immune to the virus, but it would certainly reduce the chance of it spreading in the park
 
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