Village Roadshow cites 'inconsistent trading' at Gold Coast theme parks following Dreamworld incident

At today's Annual General Meeting, Village Roadshow's Chairman Address stated that the fatal incident on Dreamworld's Thunder River Rapids in October has affected Village Roadshow Theme Parks, which operates Sea World, Warner Bros. Movie World and Wet'n'Wild.

In today's statement, Village Roadshow addressed the impact that the tragic accident at Dreamworld is having:  "We have seen inconsistent trading following the tragic incident at Dreamworld in October."

Inconsistent trading may indicate a downturn caused by a general unfavourability of theme parks in this current post-accident climate. There is also the distinct possibility that the inconsistency in fact sees the Gold Coast theme parks performing at a higher level than anticipated prior to the accident.

With the Ardent Leisure owned Dreamworld and WhiteWater World still closed, Village Roadshow's properties are the only theme parks available to tourists, local residents and school groups organising end-of-year trips. It's plausible that it's more than business-as-usual at VRTP; they could be seeing a surge in attendance and revenue right now.

Whichever way the vaguely worded statement sees the parks performing, the company remains reluctant to draw any long-term conclusions from the results.

"... [W]e are hesitant to extrapolate any trends from trading to date, given limited information at this time. We do believe it will take time for the community and the marketplace to fully recover from the tragedy. We expect to have a better understanding of the impact by the half year results announcement and will provide more information at that time."

Half year results for Village Roadshow Limited are generally released in late February each year.

The statement also reaffirmed the company's commitment to theme park and ride safety: "The safety and wellbeing of guests is our top priority. VRL has always invested in its safety and maintenance processes. Our rides undergo rigorous daily, weekly, monthly and annual inspections. In addition, we have third party safety auditing on our rides on an annual basis."

Dreamworld remains closed following a fatal incident on the Thunder River Rapids ride on October 25. A reopening date has not yet been announced.