This goes under appreciated IMO.Similarly a new hamlet would probably just spread out existing guests coming for foods, drinks, and entertainment or create so much new expenses in operating a major new part of the park that the ROI would be low.
New hamlets are commitments to a bigger base of expenses along several fronts, forever. Once built, they are permanent expansions of guest facing area. There’s no reversing the decision, nor the attendant pressure to bring in incrementally more revenue in perpetuity without substantially cannibalizing the pre-existing footprint. Will guests really spend more just because they are in a 10% bigger park? Does the park definitely know how to provide genuinely unique incremental-profit-driving novelty in the new area to make that happen? Or will guests just buy a snack in the new area at the expense of the OG snack stand around the corner? It’s a bold “forever bet” in a long established park.
To me, it is completely unsurprisingly that the only new BGW hamlet in the lifetime of many people here has been the renovation of one existing hamlet footprint.