AusLeisure

Ardent Leisure Chairman Dr Gary Weiss has reportedly been under pressure from investors about predictions for annual guest numbers at Gold Coast theme park Dreamworld.

At its recent annual general meeting, Dr Weiss, who took over as Chairman in 2017 promising to revitalise the company which had been devastated by the deaths of four Dreamworld guests in 2016, was asked to explain visitor numbers.

Activist investor David Kingston called on Dr Weiss to explain an apparent failure to attract 2.4 million guests a year to Dreamworld.

Kingston said before the tragedy, visitation to Dreamworld and Whitewater World was 2.4 million people a year, noting “in your document associated with your 2017 campaign (to become Chair) you specifically cited that you were seeking to restore the 2.4 million visitors.

“Six or seven years later you are only half that at 1.2 million.

“That’s the real problem. you are increasing yield and you are doing a number of things ok, but the problem is you are not getting enough people there.

“My question to Gary (is), given the fixed costs, given the company is still losing money which is a chronic problem (and) the cash deposit is continuing to go down because of the losses … when do you think (you will achieve) the 2.4 million, which is the number you submitted to the market in a detailed list of objectives you had?”

While Australasian Leisure Management has never seen the document to which Kingston referred, it has consistently questioned figures that Dreamworld attracted 2.4 million guest visits in 2015/16 and 1.66 million visitors in 2016/17.

Australasian Leisure Management understands that in the present millennium Dreamworld's best years have seen it welcome in the region of 1.2 million guests in a year.

In addition, Dreamworld, which has never released its annual guest figures, does indicate in its history that it achieved around 1.8 million visits per year in the mid-1990s - a time when Asian visitors to Australia accounted for around a third of Gold Coast theme park visits.

In response, Dr Weiss said it was “very difficult to make predictions about the future”, adding “when we looked at Ardent and looked at the historical performance of other theme parks around the world where tragedy had occurred the anecdotal data suggested that there would be a reversion back to pre-tragedy attendances over a two to three-year period.

Dr Weiss referenced the almost three years of Covid restrictions and pointed to the first quarter of 2024 seeing Dreamworld achieve its highest ticket sales since 2017, adding “this supports our view that Dreamworld remains on track to return to historical performance, as its park refurbishment and renewable program progressively rolls out.”

Image: Dreamworld's most recent major ride Steel Taipan.

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