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Theme park prices staying low

Staying put... theme parks will continue offering discounted passes. Photo: Parkz.
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By Richard Wilson
June 7, 2010

Dreamworld and WhiteWater World have unveiled their ticket pricing for the next six months, getting the edge on Warner Village Theme Parks by announcing a six month annual pass at an unprecedented low price.

The past year at the Gold Coast theme parks has been marked by perhaps the most heavy discounting in the industry's history. Warner Village Theme Parks started the trend with its Q150 pass, offering entry to Sea World, Warner Bros. Movie World and Wet'n'Wild Water World for as low as $50 for six months in early 2009.

Such offers continued through the past year and eventually Ardent Leisure's Dreamworld and WhiteWater World reluctantly got on board with a similar offer.

 As the current round of annual passes expire at the end of the financial year, it will all begin again shortly. Dreamworld and WhiteWater World were first off the mark by today announcing a $69.95 pass that offers unlimited entry through to December 24, traditionally the last day of the theme park year with crowds swelling come December 26 as the holidays set in and new attractions receive their marketing push.

This ticket from Dreamworld will only be on sale June 15 to July 17. The tickets will be available online here.

No word yet on Warner Village Theme Parks' ticket pricing for the next six months but it can be expected that they will follow suit and offer access to their three parks for a similar discount.

Ardent Leisure's management in particular have expressed considerable concern about the current levels of discounting. Despite this concern, the discounted seasonal passes -- which are only offered to local residents -- are the first time in recent years that the Gold Coast theme parks are on level with many international parks.

The parks are also remaining competitive with new attractions. Dreamworld is set to offer a rethemed Tower of Terror experience, Sea World will launch a new family water attraction later this year and Movie World will be focusing on a number of seasonal additions including its upcoming DC Comics 75th Anniversary parade and its growing Halloween celebration returning yet again. WhiteWater World offers its newest slide The Wedgie, while Wet'n'Wild will unleash Australia's first four looping water slides.

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Forum Comments

Posted by Gazza at 1:51pm, 10 Jun 10
Any significance in the chosen picture for the article?
Posted by themeparkgc at 9:02pm, 10 Jun 10
I was thinking the same until I re-read the caption a few time. The first two words - "staying put" - apply to not only the passes but also Eureka.
Posted by GoGoBoy at 8:40am, 11 Jun 10
I am guessing this means attendance and spending is still down at Dreamworld during this last quarter of the financial year. I was puzzled at first as to why they would allow unlimited entry until December considering they will be launching the refurbished ToT in September and should gain a natural boost in attendance from this. I then noticed that the tix can only be purchased up until 17th July - so we may find that there are no more major discounts released around the period when the ToT campaign begins (and hopefully another new major ride - although I'm starting to doubt this)
Posted by Richard at 10:17am, 11 Jun 10
I don't think attendance/spending patterns will have a lot to do with it other than recognising that they lost out bigtime to WVTP over the past year or so. To me it's about remaining competitive, and also recognising that in milking tourists for everything they can, they've been increasingly pricing themselves out of the local market. The end date of July 17 does seem to be a logical tie-in with any promotional activities they have planned for TOT.

The idea of ending the passes on December 24 is great, and not a repeat of the downright stupid decision WVTP made last year to repeal the blockout dates during the peak period.

As themeparkgc suggested, the significance of the image was simply the "staying put" pun.
Posted by One day holiday at 6:00am, 13 Jun 10
I saw the following "renewal" offer for the VIP pass today.



So it looks like the new VIP pass is $99 and comes with $10 WVTP giftcard or $299 for 4 people/passes.

Valid through till the end of June 2011 and I didn't see any blackout dates, this poster/offer had a August 31st expiry.
Posted by Gazza at 12:01pm, 13 Jun 10
So, I guess when it comes to the theme parks on the Gold Coast.....
downdownpricesaredown.jpg
Posted by AlexB at 3:00pm, 13 Jun 10
Thats hilarious. Even when Dreamworld gets in first - WVTP still trumps them with a better offer.

PAY ATTENTION DREAMWORLD... THIS is how you are supposed to respond to marketing ploys from the competition - not some half arsed copy of the competitors product!
Posted by One day holiday at 11:09am, 15 Jun 10
So the email promoting it has come out, that links to

https://myfun.com.au/VIPPass
Posted by GoGoBoy at 12:58pm, 23 Jun 10
$69 for 2 parks for 6 months? $99 for 3 parks for a whole year? Sorry but I just think that's crazy and ridiculously cheap! Considering a year or 2 ago you would have to pay much more than $69 to enter DW and WWW for only one day and now you get them both unlimited for 6 months for less money. I really don't think this is good for the parks. I understand that overseas parks offer discounts and season passes but the reality is our parks are now significantly less profitable. It's not like attendance is increasing to make up for the discounted prices. Essentially the parks are making less money and will therefore probably spend less on new rides. I just can't understand why there is a need for such discounting when our economy didn't even go into recession!
Posted by at 5:12am, 23 Jul 10
I do not think that the frequency patterns of consumption have a lot to do with it other than to acknowledge that they lost bigtime WVTP during the past year or both. I think it is about staying competitive, and also recognizes that milking all the tourists were never price themselves out of the local market. The expiry date of July 17 does not seem logical tie-in all promotional activities are planned.
Posted by GoGoBoy at 7:53am, 23 Jul 10
The sad thing is that Ardent/Dreamworld still don't appear to have learnt their lesson. They might be matching Village's prices but their marketing does not appear to be keeping up. A lot of people have heard about the Village $99 offer but not about DW/WWW's counter offer.

Living in NSW I always get a fair idea of when Dreamworld is breaking through to the wider Australian general public with their marketing campaigns. As I have said before, the last time this occurred was when they added the Claw. They played the very-effective commercials on TV in Sydney quite a lot and I remember people I was working with at the time talking about the ride and wanting to go to Dreamworld.

Over the last few weeks 3 different people I know have mentioned the Village parks $99 pass to me. My friend visited the GC recently and bought the Village offer for himself and his nephew/niece. He mentioned the '4 new slides' going into WnW as an added incentive to buy the passes (whereas as far as he was aware there was nothing being added at Dreamworld - and he hadn't heard about DW's discounts anyway). 2 others have said similar things to me and I also noticed a Jetstar print ad in the free Sydney commuter paper today with reference to Village's $99 pass. Nobody has mentioned Dreamworld
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