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Coronavirus: Impact on Theme Parks

Nicky Borrill said:
For a bit more clarity, Dominic Raab has just confirmed 4th July on Sky News as the ‘first date’ on which pubs, restaurants and other entertainment venues will be considered for opening. Presumably includes theme parks.

Apparently a very large document detailing full guidance will be released at 2pm today.
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No hairdressers opening until this date either... which I find absolutely absurd, especially as in Germany they have found a way to safely cut hair where both the customer and the staff member wears a mask. I don't get why this country always has to come up with it's own crazy strategies, which I have absolutely no confidence in anymore given the outcome of the strategy for the first wave. They are obsessed with telling people not to wear masks as it will harm the NHS' access to PPE. Well, this only applies to surgical masks so they could tell us all to wear cloth-based masks which will not harm the NHS' supply of PPE and means that business such as hairdressers can get back to work sooner as they can operate safely. Otherwise, it means that these businesses are more likely to fall through in the time that they are shut.

I hope that the government is extending the furlough scheme to leisure facilities which can't open until a later date.

I wonder where zoos are classed in all of this. I know the government will probably class them as "leisure facilities", however I think they are no more dangerous than sitting around sunbathing in the park for the entire day. They are outdoor based, large spaces and visitor limits can be put in to accommodate people safely and ensure a safe distance. It is unreasonable to say that the longleat safari drive thru cannot reopen given they are perfectly happy to reopen KFC drive thru and other fast food chains. Why does everything have to be about protecting food businesses in this country...

That's what I don't like about our exit plan. It just classes "hospitality" into one big category which means all these businesses will have to reopen at a similar time, whereas in reality some businesses would be able to reopen safely before others. This could be the difference between the business going into administration or whether it will be able to survive. For example, Drayton manor if they were able to open up the zoo first before the rest of the park, as long as they propose a way to do so in a safe manner, have a better chance of surviving the rest of the year. Same for another park like Paultons who could simply operate the gardens and the animals from June, and then bring the rides and attractions into account in July.

I hope our theme parks can reopen in July, and I hope they all come up with sensible strategies to do so safely. I would hate to see more UK theme parks fall into the similar shoes of dreamland or m&ds this season.
 
German Zoos have already opened and implemented different measures to control the crouds. Some use tickets with time slots (which does not make sense in my opinion, as you do not know if the people are actually leaving on time), dated tickets (Usually, people only spend have a day in a zoo, so this is not ideal either)
One zoo has implemented a counter on it's website, were you can see their maximum capacity (2,5k) and how many people are currently inside. This won't work for theme parks, as you typically spend the whole day in the parks.

I like the approach of Europapark: Everyone gets dated tickets, even annual pass holders (1 per month for free), so you have full control over your capacity.

Just FYI: The Cologne zoo has a capacity of 3000 people and an area of 20ha. Phantasialand has an area of ~11ha, including the sea in the Fantasy area.
However, I have not checked the usable space of the zoo via google maps, as I am not that familiar with it. (Phantasialand is mentioned with 28ha on Wikipedia). But in the end, this might give you an estimate of the limitations of the park. I doubt that we will see even 2000 people in the park at the same time, propably ~1.500, but this is just an educated guess.
 
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JammyH said:
That's what I don't like about our exit plan. It just classes "hospitality" into one big category which means all these businesses will have to reopen at a similar time, whereas in reality some businesses would be able to reopen safely before others. This could be the difference between the business going into administration or whether it will be able to survive. For example, Drayton manor if they were able to open up the zoo first before the rest of the park, as long as they propose a way to do so in a safe manner, have a better chance of surviving the rest of the year. Same for another park like Paultons who could simply operate the gardens and the animals from June, and then bring the rides and attractions into account in July.
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The wording doesn’t read like that, it specifically says ‘some.’ I think those that cannot operate with social distancing will be later.
 
In The Netherlands theme parks are planning on reopening bit by bit. Duinrell is planning on opening its attractions first on the 16th of May, followed by Toverland on the 19th as mentioned above, Efteling on the 20th and Walibi on the 25th of May. All require pre-booked tickets.

Walibi will have virtual queues for some attractions, giving no option to queue for these rides in person. NeuroGen, Skydiver and Tequila Taxis will be closed until further notice.

Efteling mentions in their FAQ that the park will open with a third of its maximum capacity.
 
An interview with Roland Mack about Europa Park's reopening and finances. Investments of 40 million euros* have been put on hold, workforce to start off with will be reduced by half and they are hoping for some taxes to be written off so they can be in a position to make future investments again.

When the park reopens the park-wide capacity will be capped at 15,000 guests per day; compared to the usual allowance of 60,000.

*most likely that new themed area and coaster delayed again

How do you ride a roller coaster in Corona times? Until now, this was reserved for stock market prices. But adrenaline fans should be able to experience this again in the largest German amusement parks at the end of May: Europa-Park wants to open its doors on May 29 - because of the Corona crisis, which is two months late. In any case, Europa-Park boss Roland Mack has already tried out whether a mouth-nose protector holds in the roller coaster at all, because it is now a must in the rides: "With the Silverstar roller coaster, it works quite well," he says, "especially for one because at 150 kilometers an hour the wind blows in the face ".

Mack, 70, has experience with strong headwinds anyway after two years ago an area of what is the largest German amusement park with 5.7 million visitors a year burned down. Europa-Park got off lightly, he says. But now the corona pandemic. "It's a very strange feeling, such a situation was unimaginable," he says in view of the forced closure. There are certainly emergency scenarios, "but nobody thought of a shutdown like this". Even when the first amusement parks in China had to close, it was not foreseeable "that it could also affect us".

The Rulantica water park, which Mack had only opened in November, had to close in mid-March. "We called a crisis round, assigned tasks and made financial plans to ensure that liquidity did not drop." Among other things, the park operators had to send 2,000 employees into short-time work, postpone 2,000 employment contracts and put investments of 40 million euros on hold. "We increased the short-time work allowance for a three-month period by a voluntary seven-digit amount so that our employees can live adequately," says Mack - a gesture of solidarity with the region. He expects, including hotels and events, "to have lost almost EUR 100 million in sales so far". In addition, "that we can only start with half the force, more equity is broken".

The concept envisages a maximum of 15,000 visitors with internet bookings per day, in normal times the park holds 60,000. "First of all we try to drive with half of the employees and think about the number of visitors we can be responsible for," says Mack. "We don't want to become a new focus of infection." The health of employees and visitors is "above all other interests".

In addition to distance rules and the obligation to wear a mask in rides, covered areas, waiting areas, surfaces and handles are disinfected. Families should sit together in the rides, rows and seats may be kept free. "A test with our employees will show how this can best be implemented." With its own app for social distancing, Europa-Park wants to try to initiate a kind of competition among the guests in which the best distance keepers can also win something. "If the customer doesn't take part in the distance bidding, it will be difficult," says Mack.

By the way, he doesn't need a KfW loan "because we have excellent bank details". This Tuesday, however, he wants to talk to Economy Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) about the problems of medium-sized companies. "He now consumes equity and can then no longer make any investments later," fears Mack. He calls for tax write-off programs and investment surcharges. "If medium-sized companies have no more prospects, they cannot invest, so there is an absolute need for action."
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www.sueddeutsche.de

Abstand in der Achterbahn

www.sueddeutsche.de www.sueddeutsche.de
 
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BlueSonicHD said:
Does anyone know the average attendance of EP. ?
Would 15000 be considered a bad ?
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Yes, that's small. While they quote 60,000 - that is about on par with a pretty busy summer day for a park of Europa's size. For comparison, 50-60k is on par with what most sizable American theme parks will see during the very busy months; with average park draw usually sitting around the 40,000 mark. (It's also worth qualifying this is a consideration of how many guests are within the park at a given moment, rather than the total attendance throughout the day, which accounts for visitors who have left the park as well.

So overall, I'd speculate this is operating at a 1/3, if not less, of average capacity.
 
BlueSonicHD said:
I dont know why they give these numbers out when they should be showing these, we are on the down turn
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Because it doesn't sound as dramatic as "40,000 UK deaths from coronavirus but true toll may be much higher" "Coronavirus could be spread by sex after recovery" and "Black people four times more likely to die from Covid-19!!!!"

(I'm not disputing the facts, it is a ridiculous level of reporting these types of headlines, and that last one quite racist - and that one comes from a newspaper that likes to call everyone that word). One could also write: "Riding a roller coaster could lead to you losing your legs" 100 times per day for weeks. It doesn't make it morally right or offer a level of perspective.)

I'd like to see an independent investigation into the British media and their fear mongering reporting once this is all over. But perhaps the reporting of this pandemic is in fact the last throw at the dice, after falling physical newspaper sales, reduced ad revenue income, trying to gain money via adblock notices, subscription levels etc that all haven't worked so well and many of these legacy media outlets will fall on their own ass after this anyway.
 
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BlueSonicHD said:
I dont know why they give these numbers out when they should be showing these, we are on the down turn
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It’s to do with the so called “weekend lag”. They don’t count all of the deaths over the weekend so they always report an excess on Tuesday. It just means that the deaths were higher on Saturday/Sunday so it’s probably been consistently 300-400 each day rather than the 200 on the weekend they were reporting and then 600 today.
 
just makes me vent my spleen on twitter with everyone wanting to cause mass panic saying over 600 die in last 24hrs. ? don lift lockdown, dont go to work, dont send kids to school everyone is going to die !
when looking at the bigger picture there is light at the end of the tunnel
keep this going and we will be riding a coaster soon
:)
 
We are on the down turn, but the amount of deaths is still comparable to the ones from March. We have to keep the infection.

The issue with those deaths is, that they only show death WITH Covid 19, not only the ones caused by it.
Here are some raw numbers, which do not take the cause of death into account. Note the annual flu season and the amount of deaths in the countries with limited/late lockdown measures. Germany for comparison.

1589306002794.png

Source: https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps#z-scores-by-country
 
BlueSonicHD said:
just makes me vent my spleen on twitter with everyone wanting to cause mass panic saying over 600 die in last 24hrs. ? don lift lockdown, dont go to work, dont send kids to school everyone is going to die !
when looking at the bigger picture there is light at the end of the tunnel
keep this going and we will be riding a coaster soon
:)
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Well indeed that's the thing. The reported toll you hear everywhere is a cumulative count from deaths over the last week or more and not a true 24hrs count.
In The Netherlands they reported today that there are more ICU patients due to other reasons than Covid 19. That is good news.

I know we've had it a lot worse in the UK and I think there are several reasons for that, but hopefully less and less people will continue to suffer with this if we indeed follow the path of other countries. There is no reason why that shouldn't happen.
I agree with exiting lockdown carefully. And we seem to be approaching it with more caution than other countries considering the guidelines in place.
(Even though that the rules were another reason to cause hysteria and political propaganda in the media with "I don't know what stay alert means").
 
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