54.3 F
San Diego
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

Ticket to Ride

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS

Legoland California

Annual visitors: 1.6 million.

Peak employment: 1,600.

Location: Carlsbad.

Year opened: 1999.

Major project in the works: 250-room themed hotel.

San Diego Zoo and Safari Park

Annual visitors: 5 million.

Peak employment: 2,000.

Location: Balboa Park and Escondido area.

Year opened: 1915 and 1972.

Major project in the works: Panda Trek at main zoo; tiger habitat at Safari Park.

SeaWorld San Diego

Annual visitors: 4.2 million.

Peak employment: 3,800.

Location: Mission Bay area.

Year opened: 1964.

Major project in the works: Manta coaster ride with ray viewing aquarium.

Sources: AECOM, park operators.

As it rides a continuing recovery for the amusement park industry, Legoland California in Carlsbad is thinking big — and small.

Small, as in debuting attractions such as Splash Zoo, a new feature at its year-old water park with oversized toy animals and gushing water sprays activated by kids age 3 and younger — the tiniest demographic ever to be served at the already child-friendly park.

Big, as in planning for a 250-room, three-story themed hotel that could open around 2013 or later.

“You don’t want to get complacent, but we are seeing signs and hearing from people in the community that things are getting better in terms of the economy,” said the park’s general manager, Peter Ronchetti. “We would like to be a place where families can stay for a few days when they’re in the San Diego area, even if they’re not spending all of their time with us.”

Several Legoland attractions, including a Star Wars Miniland that opened in March, are among more than a dozen new features, representing multimillion-dollar capital investments, that have debuted in the past year or are on the drawing boards at San Diego County’s largest tourist attractions, including SeaWorld San Diego, the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.

A slew of new building activity follows what was a flat 2009 and 2010 for the industry as a whole, as the recession and its aftermath curtailed visits.

While final 2010 numbers aren’t available, overall visits to theme parks in 2009 were down 0.2 percent globally from the prior year, and down 1.1 percent in North America, according to the trade group Themed Entertainment Association and consulting firm AECOM.

While not disclosing exact figures, operators of the big local theme parks say overall business in 2011 is up significantly from the same point of 2010 — approximately 10 percent or more.

Florida-based SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, owned by The Blackstone Group of New York, is in the midst of what the company says is its largest single-year outlay for capital investment, with $200 million in improvements slated at its 10 parks during 2011.

Making a Splash

SeaWorld San Diego recently debuted “One Ocean,” its revamped killer whale show, with an expanded three-story set, panoramic TV screens and hundreds of surround-sound speakers. On June 18, it plans to open Turtle Reef, with a 300,000-gallon aquarium featuring rarely seen hawksbill and green sea turtles, along with a rescue-boat-themed spin ride called Riptide Rescue.

Also, the Mission Bay park recently began construction on Manta, a swooping coaster ride that will have new tanks for viewing rays and other sea life, a seven-building project that will open to the public around spring 2012.

“We are responding to an improving economic picture, the way a lot of businesses would,” said John Reilly, park president at SeaWorld San Diego. “Southern California is definitely a very competitive region for the park industry.”

Recent investments also have included adding tech-related features, such as smartphone applications that help park visitors find attraction locations and show schedules. In the fourth quarter, Reilly says, the park will be ramping up on-site infrastructure improvements in support of SeaWorld’s holiday season events.

New Attractions

Keeping visitors coming with new attractions is also a priority for the nonprofit Zoological Society of San Diego, which operates San Diego Zoo at Balboa Park and the zoo’s Safari Park near Escondido, formerly known as the Wild Animal Park.

Following up on its last major project at the main zoo — the $45 million Elephant Odyssey, which opened in 2009 — the zoo has continuing changes under way at its popular Panda Canyon. Under construction is an attraction called Panda Trek, set to open this summer, as the zoo adds other animals and elements native to the Chinese habitat of the rare pandas.

“The idea was to give visitors a better idea of the global effort to preserve pandas, and also give people a sense of how we care for and interact with the pandas here at the zoo,” said Ted Molter, marketing director for the Zoological Society.

At the Safari Park, signage has been updated, and screens using Google Earth technology help visitors find their way at some spots. The entryway village has been redesigned so visitors encounter animals almost as soon as they enter the park, and construction is proceeding on attractions including a “flying fox” exhibit, featuring what are actually rare Asian bats.

The Safari Park also is raising funds for a tiger habitat, a forested area that will let visitors watch the big cats climb rocks and swim in ponds.

Molter says the zoo and Safari Park were helped during the recession by the zoological organization’s large and loyal membership base, which continues to provide a steady year-round flow of visitors as well as support capital improvements. The two parks had some 5 million visitors in 2010 — about two-thirds of that at the main zoo — generally holding steady from 2009.

Building Blocks of Success

Ronchetti says that Legoland California’s recent growth spurt is a reflection of the generally bullish post-recession outlook of its parent company, England-based Merlin Entertainments Group, which AECOM notes was the world’s second-largest amusement park operator by visitor count after Disney in 2009.

In 2011, Legoland California has seen the opening of Hero Factory, where young guests build and create heroes and villains, and the debut of an interactive octopus exhibit at its Sea Life aquarium.

That’s in addition to the water park expansion and the Star Wars attraction, featuring 2,000 models made from 1.5 million Lego bricks, depicting scenes from the popular sci-fi movie saga.

Ronchetti says Legoland continues to make changes based on feedback from visitors. That feedback helped lead to the creation of Splash Zoo, which, like the rest of the water park, helped extend Legoland’s demographic reach beyond its traditional core of families with children ages 3 to 12.

“We had some parents say to us, could you add a few things to keep the younger ones occupied a little?” he recalled. “We just focus on what we believe is our niche — making things very interactive for these younger guests.”

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

Encanto Business Lets the Good Times Roll

Economic Driver

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-