News Quarterly Financial Results
- Thread starter David
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I credit a lot of this due to the massive increase in tourism in Orlando.
Visit Orlando just announced today that the area had 72 million visitors last year, which shattered the previous record by 4 million (68 million in 2016). The opening of Volcano Bay and Pandora really brought tourists in and the attendance boost from last year is rolling over into this year as well.
I go every year during the IAAPA convention and, while this is one of the best times to go due to it being a "slow" week since it's the week before the Thanksgiving crowd rolls through, the crowds are usually much lighter than usual. However over the last two years I've noticed a significant increase in crowds at all the parks.
I also went this year, the week after New Years, when the crowds usually drop off thinking the parks wouldn't be too bad...
Boy was I wrong! Animal Kingdom hit capacity the day after I visited on January 4th. Apparently a massive influx of South American tourists started arriving after the New Year since that hemisphere has their summer vacation around that time. When I was having dinner at Monsieur Paul in Epcot on January 5th all I heard was Spanish being spoken among the crowd and I overheard the visitors from Colombia sitting next to me talking about going to SeaWorld the previous day and the great time they had.
Now while this is a good sign for the company, SEAS really needs to take better advantage of this tourism to bring in more of these visitors. They are being killed by other parks in the area when it comes to existing and new attractions. Universal's and Disney's use of other IPs are the ones funneling people in. Three B&Ms and some animal attractions aren't enough as they need something more. Infinity Falls may help when it opens but the park is still lacking when it comes to a variety of rides compared to the others.
Visit Orlando just announced today that the area had 72 million visitors last year, which shattered the previous record by 4 million (68 million in 2016). The opening of Volcano Bay and Pandora really brought tourists in and the attendance boost from last year is rolling over into this year as well.
I go every year during the IAAPA convention and, while this is one of the best times to go due to it being a "slow" week since it's the week before the Thanksgiving crowd rolls through, the crowds are usually much lighter than usual. However over the last two years I've noticed a significant increase in crowds at all the parks.
I also went this year, the week after New Years, when the crowds usually drop off thinking the parks wouldn't be too bad...
Boy was I wrong! Animal Kingdom hit capacity the day after I visited on January 4th. Apparently a massive influx of South American tourists started arriving after the New Year since that hemisphere has their summer vacation around that time. When I was having dinner at Monsieur Paul in Epcot on January 5th all I heard was Spanish being spoken among the crowd and I overheard the visitors from Colombia sitting next to me talking about going to SeaWorld the previous day and the great time they had.
Now while this is a good sign for the company, SEAS really needs to take better advantage of this tourism to bring in more of these visitors. They are being killed by other parks in the area when it comes to existing and new attractions. Universal's and Disney's use of other IPs are the ones funneling people in. Three B&Ms and some animal attractions aren't enough as they need something more. Infinity Falls may help when it opens but the park is still lacking when it comes to a variety of rides compared to the others.
I agree with what Warfelg said, but I also think Zimmy has a point. If SeaWorld came out against a large network like CNN, especially in their broken state, big media would break them for good. I could see that playing out like a modern remake of The Godfather.
CastleOSullivan said:
To clarify, I'm not saying publicly attack them right away. Like the PR department could just reach out, express the displeasure of SEAS seeing a positive article sidetracked by rehashing the past.
I just feel like what CNN did to SEAS in that article is like when my mom visits, tells me I look thinner and better, but I could still lose more weight. Sure there's a complement there but it never really lets you move forward.
I think politely saying that, inviting the writer and some editors to see what you've changed might get an article like "What I got wrong about SEAS". You never know. That's all part of the steps to getting past this. As long as you let them keep bringing it up you never can truly move past it.
Unagi said:
On one hand I agree....
....on the other hand, Disney is making it near impossible to get off property when you are there. Adding so many attractions even a single gate is becoming a 1.5 day affair. Parking prices are skyrocketing, meaning if you take a week trip there (last I saw it was $22 a day staying there for $154 for the week, or $45 a day if you aren't a guest, meaning a week costs $300+!!) you might as well fly and stay on property. Well now with their in house UBER, the gondolas going up, the monorail, busses, boats; its harder and harder to get off property. Universal is quickly becoming like that too and making it so if you are there, the options to just fly and take the transit, then stay on property is easier than anything else.
I think the growth of things like Fun Spot, other smaller parks, Discovery Cove, and other tourist things will help SEAS more especially in the Orlando market. Then do single say tickets for the big parks.
Has SEAS ever considered doing 'day trip' busses from Orlando to Tampa? Only about 2 hours. Stay are a SWO partner hotel, and have a daily bus that leaves at 8am, return trips at 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, 8pm and it takes you to BGT for something different?
tursiops said:
They do indeed still have this service. In addition, SEAS has shuttle buses that pick you up ON PROPERTY from Uni and take you to either park (BGT/SWO). They do a very good job simplifying the, "Oh no, how do I go anywhere?" dilemma. I'm not sure if they have shuttle buses that go on Disney property, but I was at SWO in Feb and saw a crazy amount of Disney guests at the parks.
warfelg said:
Disagree with this. While it may seem that way, tons of tourists do opt to stay at off-site hotels or get rental homes. It's quite evident as there is an explosion of new subdivisions that are being created as "rental only" neighborhoods. The growth on both east and west sides of 192 in Kissimmee is crazy right now. And for many, it's actually more economical to do this because many times a lot of the affordable on-site Disney resorts are unavailable due to high demand. You can even rent a luxury home in Formosa Gardens for the week for half the price of staying somewhere like the Grand Floridian and Polynesian resorts. So quite often throughout the year, the WDW resort doesn't have enough sufficient on-site rooms to handle the amount of tourists that would like to stay there, leaving them no other options but to get a rental or off-site hotel.
Also, the city and the entire metropolitan area itself is growing at an exponential rate, so there are many off-site places for tourists to visit. There's a constant growth of new restaurants, entertainment, shops and shopping districts, and non-park attractions popping up left and right. One thing I do know for sure is that the majority of South American visitors (especially ones from Brazil) make it a point to go shopping at the local malls and Premium Outlets due to the extremely high import tax for foreign manufactured retail goods in their country. A few years ago my friend from Rio bought a 15" MacBook Pro at the Apple Store at Mall at Millenia in Orlando for $2200. Had he bought that same model in Brazil he told me it would've cost him close to $4000. You'll even see many tourists go to the Premium Outlets and make their first stop at a Samsonite store, buy an empty luggage, and stroll it around from store to store while filling it with purchases. This goes to show that many visitors aren't spending their money solely on the mouse.
So while it seems like Disney is making it harder to stay off-site, in reality they do not have the grip on this that they may appear to have.
From the BGT website...
"Mears Destination Services offers round trip motor coach transportation from several convenient Orlando area locations to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. Transportation is complimentary with any purchased Busch Gardens admission ticket. Reservations are highly recommended, due to demand. Number of stops for each shuttle are not determined until day of trip. Your shuttle could potentially have a maximum of 3 stops on the route. For additional information, including pickup time and locations, please call 1-800-221-1339 or visit Mears Destination Services."
Shuttle service info from the Mears Website here.
Note - they don't do daily departure times in increments of every two hours. There's a morning shuttle taking you there and one in the evening that will take you back to Orlando.
Pretzel Kaiser said:
PK,
I've taken this shuttle once from the old Mercado Shops on I-Drive (the Orlando Eye now sits in this location) and the service was great. They still have a stop here as well as SeaWorld and a few other places. We arrived at the park 15 minutes before opening and we left one hour before closing, which didn't bother me as the park wasn't too busy since I was able to grab a dozen rides each on Montu and Kumba. These shuttle buses are clean and spotless too.
The site says this transportation is free if you have a paid admission ticket but what it doesn't say is that passholders get to use this service for free as well. As long as you have some type of ticket/pass to get you into BGT, you won't be charged for the shuttle ride.
Unagi said:
This is the part I was talking about as helping SEAS. Orlando is growing outside the parks part of the tourism industry. Golf, shopping, entertainment. It's all growing in a way that going to help SEAS as a less expensive 1-day option, as opposed to going to UO or WDW and doing a part of what they have to offer, spending more, and leaving feeling like you didn't do it all.
Unagi said:
To be fair here, I'm not talking about staying offsite and coming to a WDW/UO park. I'm talking about being on property. If I do a trip where I say at say Port Orleans (like I did the last time I went), taking the time to get off property at that time was difficult. I went with my dad, his girlfriend at the time, and her kids. We stayed 5 nights, 7 days, didn't have a car (flew down and used the Disney Shuttle). I wanted to take a day on my own and go to SeaWorld.
At the time (2010), to get a taxi to and from was about $45. My other option was to rent a car for $40, pay the $10 for pickup and drop off, pay the $15 to park. Both had their own downside to using. On top of that I would have to pay for the ticket and parking.
Meanwhile at Disney we had the FastPass, 2 prepaid meals a day, and park hopper tickets.
So, to be fair to what I was saying, that's what I was referencing when I say it's harder to leave WDW/UO property than it seems. When you go all of that at your fingertips it's hard to say I'll shell out extra to go somewhere else (especially when you travel on a budget like we did/I still do). If I went to SWO and it was busy, I'd just have to deal with it. If I went to Magic Kingdom, I could skip a few lines; then I could hop on over to EPCOT where it wasn't as bad; and if I got bored it was over to Animal Kingdom.
But I'll admit, yes there are a large percent of people that stay off property, pay less, and maybe take a day or two to go to other parks. There are travel agencies that would put together a say at a Marriott, 3 days for WDW, 2 for UO, 1 for SWO and you can chose when to go to which park. You can set up something through UO/WDW and decide to do something different for the day. And there's a small percent of people that stay on WDW/UO properties and take a single day to go elsewhere.
I just personally don't feel that part plays as much into is as Orlando itself is just improving outside the parks and now there are other reasons to take a day to be there.
Anyways as for SEAS being up, I couldn't find it (or I'm just lazy enough not to exhaust every possibility) but is there a park by park breakdown?
Also, I saw a report on this growth an part of it included that at one point of the call they talked about the "Six Flags model" of adding 1 new attraction to every park per year, so that there was constant news on your park. And the more there's news like this the more exposure you have.
I'm for and against this at the same time. If you are doing better, can make the payments, and afford to do this; it's a great thing. And SF certainly pulled themselves out of a major mess to get back to a good standing. But they also had parks they could sell off and get some money back to make some loans go away. SEAS doesn't really have that luxury unless they parse off the water parks (so so so dumb), or sell off the BG parks.
Also, I saw a report on this growth an part of it included that at one point of the call they talked about the "Six Flags model" of adding 1 new attraction to every park per year, so that there was constant news on your park. And the more there's news like this the more exposure you have.
I'm for and against this at the same time. If you are doing better, can make the payments, and afford to do this; it's a great thing. And SF certainly pulled themselves out of a major mess to get back to a good standing. But they also had parks they could sell off and get some money back to make some loans go away. SEAS doesn't really have that luxury unless they parse off the water parks (so so so dumb), or sell off the BG parks.
Reilly takes aggressive posture
Reilly looks to add a new ride, attraction, show or event in every park every year.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/tourism/sd-fi-seaworld-future-20180514-story.html
Reilly looks to add a new ride, attraction, show or event in every park every year.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/tourism/sd-fi-seaworld-future-20180514-story.html
I really hope this does not mean a Six Flags style flow of flat, flat, flat, dinky coaster. Though having far fewer parks than Six Flags hopefully means at least one good coaster each year in the bunch. Six Flags had only a small RMC and a Free Spin before a sea of dinky additions this year.
I wonder if they group the ride-parks with the water parks when considering "new addition each year".
I wonder if they group the ride-parks with the water parks when considering "new addition each year".
SLC Headache said:
1- Those “dinky additions” is what helped SF pull themselves out of the problem area. They spend a little to add 4 clones in a year, yet because they got something new you talk about them. Give media a reason to visit and write about them/do tv spots about them/put things on Twitter and Facebook.
2- Part of they for them is rotating around their chain who gets the new coaster and they do 2-3 a year. If you consider WWGL and Georgia Cyclone “dinky additions” I’m not sure what to say. I would love seeing either of those at BGW. Where SEAS can replicate this is rotate who gets a coaster each year. SWSD got one this year, BGT gets one next year (2019) and everyone else gets a flat, BGW gets one in 2020, SWO in 2021, SWSA in 2022; go back through. SEAS is always in the news cycle with announcements, openings, and reviews with coasters; locally a new flat every year (even if it replaces something) means you are in the local news cycle.
3- You don’t need new stuff at water parks as often. They are actually profitable even without now additions. Each water park getting a new slide every 3 years can really go a long way. Especially consider where SEAS water parks are. All I’m hotter climates where they can really profit off of longer seasons (except WCUSA).
1. Most Six Flags parks are local/regional and can get away with a flat every year punctuated with a dinky coaster. SWO, BGW, and arguably BGT are super-regional. The SWs to the west are regional.warfelg said:
2. Oof, I totally forgot Wonder Woman. While I wouldn't call it or Twisted Cyclone dinky, they're the kind of things Cedar Fair gives to second-tier parks. I wouldn't mind the 315-foot addition being a tower instead of a coaster, if Ireland 2019 is a custom Raptor (following the trend of revitalizing the area first).
SLC Headache said:
It shouldn't matter what you put in. If it's a mondial, a claw/delerium type ride, or 'dinky' (which IMO is fine to become more kid friendly....can't have it both ways) shouldn't matter at all. Continually putting in attractions or entertainment so you stay in the news cycle is whats the mart of the Six Flags business model to look at.
Yes sometimes that might entail 'boring' of redoing an area like around DaVinci's Cradle and putting in some updated flats, new gardening, and new paint on the kids rides. But that's press to get people to see it and something new to show off.
Continually being in the news cycle is what SF did to pull themselves out. As soon as a ride was announced you had the excitement of seeing it go up, then you got it opening, the press from how awesome it is, then right on the heals of that you tease something for the next year.
SLC Headache said:
SEAS doesn't have the money to operate like the top tier parks. Take a moment and digest that part of it. SEAS has to look at those types of pre-fab options to improve their standing before going hog wild with custom rides.
Also highly doubt Ireland 2019 is going to be a Raptor. I'm waiting for Google to update over those parks, but they are bigger than that space allows, and WWGL and RailBlazer aren't that compact.
SEAS needs to look at examples of how struggling chains and parks pulled themselves back up, and not look at a thriving chain and what they do. Putting that CF target on SEAS will lead to nothing but failure. Looking at SF and how they handled their bankrupcy case. That's almost a picture perfect casestudy of how to pull yourself out of this situation that SEAS is in.
This is a long and in depth but worthwhile read to understand what I'm talking about:
https://turnaround.org/cmaextras/2.SixFlagsEntertainment-Paper2014.pdf
Remember, this change isn't just about BGW. It's also about BGT, SWO, SWSA, SWSD, the Aquitica parks, WCUSA, Discovery Cove, Sesame Place (maybe a second). Finding a way to keep almost all those parks in the news cycle consistently is key, not just one or two of them.
Maybe my view of flat rides is just skewed. I'd be more welcoming of flats if they weren't the same-old same-old - the pendulum stuff, the Larson Loops, some of the towers. With SFA's Wonder Woman, we've reached peak tower swing, though BGW does have a good enough view to get away with a StarFlyer.
Nick U and Knoebels had some pretty interesting flats (RIP Jimmy Neutron), and I'm off to Canada's Wonderland in less than two weeks, so maybe I'll further warm up to flats.
It'll also take me a little while to lower my standards for SWP&E additions compared to SF. SFA in particular is a park that needs improvement before it's ready for a big addition. BGW is already in the condition for the big addition.
Nick U and Knoebels had some pretty interesting flats (RIP Jimmy Neutron), and I'm off to Canada's Wonderland in less than two weeks, so maybe I'll further warm up to flats.
It'll also take me a little while to lower my standards for SWP&E additions compared to SF. SFA in particular is a park that needs improvement before it's ready for a big addition. BGW is already in the condition for the big addition.
But that stuff is good for parks. They are relatively inexpensive, they generate news in the immediate area, and they can be themed to whatever the park wants.
You may say they have reached peak tower swing, but think of the people that got to BGW (or any other SEAS park at that) and the flat brought in isn’t something that’s already in the area. You also invest in family friendly stuff, maybe one or two unique flats. But flats are a need for almost all parks.
You may say they have reached peak tower swing, but think of the people that got to BGW (or any other SEAS park at that) and the flat brought in isn’t something that’s already in the area. You also invest in family friendly stuff, maybe one or two unique flats. But flats are a need for almost all parks.