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Coronavirus: Impact on Theme Parks

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
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I know New York, and the tri-state area, are the exception to the rule, but it's not as much of a ***-show that the map you linked to would suggest.
;)

I suppose it's all relative. It's pretty much all a total ****-show somewhere on the spectrum - New Zealand possibly excluded. :p
 

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
Following up on my previous Q2 posts, SeaWorld Entertainment reported a net loss of $131 million during the second quarter of 2020, in which all of its theme parks were closed during most of the period because of the coronavirus outbreak. The company said revenue declined 96% from last year to $18 million , down from $388 million, as its guest numbers fell to 300,000 during the quarter compared with 6.5 million visitors a year earlier. EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $53.8 million. Per capita spending was up 5.5% and in park per capita spending was up 10%. Deferred revenue from passes and other products was down almost 16% from a year ago. The total pass base is down 31%. However, parks that have been open in the quarter the pass base grew more than 10%.
Right now they are seeing positive cash flow at their operating parks and it was also noted that they believe they need to hit a out 40% of last year's revenue figures in order to be profitable overall for the year. Due to selling notes and receiving a large sum from them, the corporation appears to be on the lookout for parks that will be for sale due to their operators not being able to withstand these tough times. What they're looking at are things like water parks, hotels or other small parks that could be converted into a Sesame Place.
Regarding capital expenditures, they are about 87% complete with all the new rides that were supposed to be for 2020 but did not open, all of which have been pushed to 2021. It will take another $15 million to finish those rides, but they still owe another $40 to $50 million on them as well.
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
Quarantine update for us lot in the UK:

“Weekly” announcement (yes it’s become a weekly thing now) expected tomorrow as it now happens every Thursday.

Countries being added to the list could include Switzerland, France, Greece, Malta, netherlands and Poland.

Portugal May be taken off the list.

To be honest at this point we might as well close our borders, travel to anywhere is extremely limited anyway!
 

Professor

Previously AndrewRollercoaster
Quarantine update for us lot in the UK:

“Weekly” announcement (yes it’s become a weekly thing now) expected tomorrow as it now happens every Thursday.

Countries being added to the list could include Switzerland, France, Greece, Malta, netherlands and Poland.

Portugal May be taken off the list.

To be honest at this point we might as well close our borders, travel to anywhere is extremely limited anyway!

I don't know if that is going to help the economy or just make things worse.
Staycations are obviously far more in fashion and will continue to be, certain travel and hospitality companies in the UK will be making a killing.
I've been going to Center Parcs quite a few times over the last 5 years, usually in October / November. I can see all the school holiday days are fully booked. They are usually busy and far more expensive but fully booked at this point is indeed unusual I believe.

In addition to extra late night riding dates, Blackpool Pleasure Beach will now open Mondays and Tuesdays as well in September and October (previously they would have been closed on those days), so obviously they are doing well.

However airlines are a big part of the UK economy so if the quarantine thing for our closest neighbouring countries indeed goes ahead that is gonna hurt surely.
Also ferry companies and Eurotunnel will do badly.

To a large extent I would have thought it places the income for these industries back to the days of lockdown.
 

davidm

Strata Poster
^ been some recent goon trips to the Netherlands I think - that's likely to mess up a few plans!

No coasters in Aruba that I'm aware of tho' ;)
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
France also added to the quarantine list, travellers arriving from 4am Saturday have to quarantine for 14 days.

This is in addition to Malta, netherlands, Monaco, Aruba and Turks & Caicos.

The right decision given the rapidly rising numbers.
 

Peet

Giga Poster
Booo. Bye bye Walibi Holland road trip that was planned for two weeks time.
Me too :(. For me it was the replacement for my previously planned Cedar Point Road trip on those dates so double boo.

Might try a little Italian trip in the last week of August as a Plan C.
 

zazobo

Hyper Poster
Me too :(. For me it was the replacement for my previously planned Cedar Point Road trip on those dates so double boo.

Might try a little Italian trip in the last week of August as a Plan C.
Good shout, we’re thinking we might go up and finally do Blackpool (never been) but we hear there might be a local lockdown coming for Blackpool... can’t plan anything at the moment!
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
Good shout, we’re thinking we might go up and finally do Blackpool (never been) but we hear there might be a local lockdown coming for Blackpool... can’t plan anything at the moment!
Haven’t most businesses, pubs and attractions been allowed to remain open under local measures recently? With the measures focused on cutting links between friends and different household instead...

Could be wrong but I thought I’d read that the greater manchester restrictions revolved around meeting other households etc.
 

zazobo

Hyper Poster
Haven’t most businesses, pubs and attractions been allowed to remain open under local measures recently? With the measures focused on cutting links between friends and different household instead...

Could be wrong but I thought I’d read that the greater manchester restrictions revolved around meeting other households etc.

Ah okay- good to know, thank you! As long as they don't close BPB we'll be okay!!!
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
Not so much a quarantine update, but more of a “prediction”.

I think at Thursday 10pm, Croatia and Denmark will be added to the list.

Other countries which are on thin ice include Switzerland, Austria, Poland and Greece, but I think they will survive another week.

Germany & Italy remain at lower rates than UK so continue to do ok.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
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@JammyH - out of curiosity (and no so I can obsessively monitor Germany for an upcoming trip... ;) ), what's your 'best' source of data for these numbers? Feels like everywhere I look is comparing slightly different statistics . To my simple mind, and assuming you have a halfway decent testing regime, you just need two numbers - number of cases per test, and rate of change of that number. Per-capita numbers might be useful too, I suppose.
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
@JammyH - out of curiosity (and no so I can obsessively monitor Germany for an upcoming trip... ;) ), what's your 'best' source of data for these numbers? Feels like everywhere I look is comparing slightly different statistics . To my simple mind, and assuming you have a halfway decent testing regime, you just need two numbers - number of cases per test, and rate of change of that number. Per-capita numbers might be useful too, I suppose.

Hi @Hixee. I also have a germany trip planned for beginning of September, so I am keeping a close eye on things too.

From the extensive amount of research I’ve done, Grant Schnapps & Quash Quarantine decide the new countries based on two things:

1. 14 day cumulative Covid-19 prevalence per 100,000 population in a particular country.
2. Strictness of social distancing measures, testing volumes etc.

The first one is the most important of the two, and ultimately the deciding factor. When the 14 day cumulative rate per 100,000 goes above 20.0 for a particular country, the government actively start to consider adding it to the quarantine list. The best website to monitor these rates is the european centre for disease prevention and control:


Notice the UK itself sits at an active rate of 18.6, which is dangerously close to 20.0, and covid prevalence in the UK is rising at the moment, so technically the government should be “working” to keep our rates under 20.0.

If you take a look at this table, it is updated daily, and is my best personal way of keeping informed. If the country you want to travel to hits a rate of above 20.0, you need to proceed with caution, and best to keep an eye on the media to see if it is potentially being added.

With that being said, out of all countries which are currently on the quarantine list, the one with the lowest rates is actually portugal, which sits at 26.0. So in my head it is very easy to consider this a baseline for when countries are in serious risk of being added.

The government seem to enjoy making a weekly thing of this now, so I am fully expecting another announcement on Thursday at 22:00. Looking at the table, Denmark and Croatia are at serious risk, both have rates of above 29 and both have extremely relaxed social distancing policies (croatia has mass gatherings and nightclubs open)- I would be genuinely surprised if both of these weren’t added come Thursday.

France and netherlands both sit at rates of over 40, hence their addition and Belgium over 60, and Spain over 115, so I hope this gives an insight as to why they’ve been added.

Other countries which I consider in the “risk zone” are Poland (25.7), Austria (22.4), Greece (21.2), Iceland (29.7). Out of these four, in my opinion, Greece will be the first to be added, simply because social distancing is the most relaxed. Austria is very strict with social distancing and masks and Iceland has a very meticulous testing regime meaning they can virtually pick up all cases, so I don’t expect either of these air bridges to be immediately severed.

Now the ECDC website doesn’t take into account testing and strictness of social distancing measures. You will struggle to find a website which looks specifically at each countries “positive rate” between amount of tests performed and positive cases detected. So this is very hard to keep a close eye on. But it is normally detailed in each governments database- as @SimonProD has said, if you are specifically interested in germany, the Robert Koch institution is a good place to gather your information.

According to the ECDC, Germany sits at a rate of 16.3, compared to uk which sits at 18.6, as long as it stays below the uk I would say we should be fine getting back, but UK’s rate also has to remain low so we can get into Germany without a quarantine.

Another good place which updates data daily is: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

This will give you the new daily cases per country, the new daily deaths, the amount of patients recovered and critical and you can also see the amount of tests performed per capita by each country throughout the pandemic (but this leads to slightly skewed data as UK is viewed now to be one of the best countries for testing- yet we didn’t have tests available to the public until June and just have ramped it up since then, whereas countries like Germany have been consistent with testing throughout).

Here are 2 graphs I’ve taken from world-o-meter. It shows both the UK and germany have seen rising cases since easing lockdown and reopening borders, although both are steady rises and neither are exponential. You also need to remember that germany has a pop of 83 mil compared to UK’s 66 mil.

2915ECFE-846A-4972-9EA6-286250104FF3.jpegB79383B0-3183-4485-A61D-7345BA1F2802.jpeg
 

Professor

Previously AndrewRollercoaster
Energylandia's calendar has changed. No more Monday - Wednesday openings in September and no more Mondays - Thursdays in October. Same goes for the weeks in December (no Mondays - Thursdays)

Interesting that that is almost the exact opposite of the likes of what Blackpool Pleasure Beach recently announced.

This is interesting also as I am not sure this is related to Covid 19 only and a reduction in attendance (perhaps internationally mostly) or part of a longer term strategy.
We've heard before that Energylandia's desire is to eventually be open all year round like Disneyland and Efteling. This doesn't bode well, at least in the short term, fulfilling that desire. I've heard before that weekdays in September can be quite dead.

I could see this being particularly annoying for people already booked to go. The new hotels / resorts that have popped up in that immediate area (quite a few from what I've seen) are probably not happy with this either.

Edit: realised Thursdays still open in September.
 
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CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
Interview with Roland Mack about Europa Park's financial situation this year, the season extension and how if successful we may see more season extensions in the future.
The "Europapark" in Rust in the south of Baden wants to extend its season in November this year because of the corona pandemic. However, due to the limited number of visitors, the leisure company is still expecting red numbers this year.

"We cannot earn money under these circumstances. In 2020 we will write a balance sheet loss," said the founder and managing partner of Germany's largest theme park, Roland Mack. This is still manageable because the company is well managed and has a low level of debt. "In the long term, however, we cannot survive with the current situation," said Mack.

The number of visitors is limited to 15,000 per day due to hygiene rules. Between 30,000 and 40,000 guests looking for fun and thrills are normally common on summer days. With the extended opening in autumn some numbers could possibly be caught up again.

"And if we have good experiences with it, I can well imagine starting the new year much earlier than usual, in other words at the beginning of March and not just at Easter," says Mack. In January and February, however, it makes no sense to open "Europapark" because of the cold.
https://www.rnz.de/nachrichten/metr...aengert-saison-bis-november-_arid,535293.html
 

Lukeesix

Roller Poster
Energylandia's calendar has changed. No more Monday - Wednesday openings in September and no more Mondays - Thursdays in October. Same goes for the weeks in December (no Mondays - Thursdays)

Interesting that that is almost the exact opposite of the likes of what Blackpool Pleasure Beach recently announced.

This is interesting also as I am not sure this is related to Covid 19 only and a reduction in attendance (perhaps internationally mostly) or part of a longer term strategy.
We've heard before that Energylandia's desire is to eventually be open all year round like Disneyland and Efteling. This doesn't bode well, at least in the short term, fulfilling that desire. I've heard before that weekdays in September can be quite dead.

I could see this being particularly annoying for people already booked to go. The new hotels / resorts that have popped up in that immediate area (quite a few from what I've seen) are probably not happy with this either.

Edit: realised Thursdays still open in September.

It indeed is quite annoying, for me as I booked a trip and planned to hit energylandia on October weekdays. What nerved me the most about it, that they did it at first very silent, and only posted it now, after I wrote them an email. Of course probably they planned to post the info, but I suggested it to them. Now they’ve explained it quite well and I can understand them, even though it is a bit too short to close so many days, a month before.
 
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