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Coronavirus: Impact on Theme Parks

Denmark has given the green light for theme parks and zoos to reopen on the condition that only guests who present a negative corona test result may enter.

The amusement parks and zoos in Denmark have permission to reopen from next week. There is an important condition attached to the reopening: all visitors must be able to present a negative corona test that must not be older than 72 hours.

Most Danish theme parks plan to start the new season in late March or late April. Amusement park Bakken, for example, wants to open its gates on Friday 26 March, followed by Legoland Billund and Tivoli Gardens on Saturday 27 March.

Tivili Friheden announces that visitors are welcome again from Thursday 1 April. Djurs Sommerland, Fårup Sommerland and BonBon-Land are waiting until Friday, April 30. Animal parks will probably open earlier.

To check
Whether indoor attractions and restaurants may be operational in the future is still being considered. Employees will check at the entrance whether visitors have a negative test result. Anyone who often wants to go to an amusement park will have to be tested for the corona virus regularly.
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Source
 
Does anyone know what the situation is in Denmark with getting Covid tests?

Presumably it must be quite easy (and free) to get a 'lateral flow' test for that to be a realistic and enforceable thing!
 
How is Bakken even going to enforce that? Last year you could still walk in from every conceivable corner of the place with no one stopping you. Sealing off the area would result in a lot of unfortunate bottlenecks, I feel.
 
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Cedar Fair, which reported total operating loss of $572 million last year, saw attendance at its parks decline by more than 90% to 2.6 million in 2020 compared with 27.9 million in 2019, while net revenues went down from $1.47 billion to $182 million, with the decline attributed to the coronavirus outbreak (of course).
Waiting for other chain financial reports, but don't expect any to be much better.
 
Proposed new regulations in Sweden means amusement parks can open as early as April 11th, provided the current situation doesn't worsen. Gröna Lund is still on target for an April 24th opening, but Liseberg won't open until May at the earliest due to delays in the recruitment process. Kolmården is still set for an April 2nd opening, but likely without rides operating until the new regulations take effect.

https://www.msn.com/sv-se/nyheter/inrikes/liseberg-kan-öppna-i-maj-letar-sommarjobbare/ar-BB1e7756 (in Swedish)
 
Picking up on my Cedar Fair post above - SeaWorld Entertainment posted a 48% drop in revenue to $154 million during the fourth quarter, while its total revenue went down from $966.5 million in 2019 to $431.8 million in fiscal year 2020, again attributed to the coronavirus outbreak. The company also saw its attendance drop 53% to 2.2 million visitors for the quarter and 72% to 6.4 million visitors for the year, while also reporting net loss of $45.5 million in the fourth quarter and $312 million in 2020.
 
cookie said:
Proposed new regulations in Sweden means amusement parks can open as early as April 11th, provided the current situation doesn't worsen. Gröna Lund is still on target for an April 24th opening, but Liseberg won't open until May at the earliest due to delays in the recruitment process. Kolmården is still set for an April 2nd opening, but likely without rides operating until the new regulations take effect.

https://www.msn.com/sv-se/nyheter/inrikes/liseberg-kan-öppna-i-maj-letar-sommarjobbare/ar-BB1e7756 (in Swedish)
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General manager Andreas Anderson is now saying that Liseberg is targeting a May 1st opening, as Sweden’s national health authority has given the green light for amusement parks and zoos to re-open on April 11th. Andersen is critical to the authority’s delayed response in the matter, saying the park was already safe to open ”last spring” and that they now need ”six to seven weeks” to get staffing in order.

https://www.goteborgdirekt.se/nyhet...an-oppna-i-var/repucb!ubA3mlgAEqUpAilV5KPeZw/ (in Swedish)
 
From the UK budget today:
The government is investing £25bn by allowing a 130% super-deduction on tax for investments made by companies. This means firms can cut their taxes by up to 25p for every pound they invest.
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I failed economics A-level and my political language skills are a bit rusty, but would large CAPEX like coasters and such count as investment in the company and attract this benefit? Or would they be seen as regular expenditure?
 
Dar said:
[...] would large CAPEX like coasters and such count as investment in the company and attract this benefit? Or would they be seen as regular expenditure?
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I think they'd be considered investment as they're "one off" purchases. To my reading, a regular expense is something you spend year-in-year-out, whereas a coaster is a standalone project.

I haven't read the detail of the budget (and I'm not going to), but how long does this last? Will it last long enough for a park to be able to get a new coaster in, I wonder?
 
Hixee said:
I think they'd be considered investment as they're "one off" purchases. To my reading, a regular expense is something you spend year-in-year-out, whereas a coaster is a standalone project.
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Ah, I assumed they might be considered a "cost of doing business" as an amusement park! It makes sense though that they would be thought of similar to buying a new conveyor belt or robot for a factory.

Hixee said:
I haven't read the detail of the budget (and I'm not going to), but how long does this last? Will it last long enough for a park to be able to get a new coaster in, I wonder?
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It runs until March 2023, so we could see a glut of low-effort attractions for 2023? Depends on the impact on the rest of the balance sheet though, especially with Merlin and how much they get charged by Merlin Magic Making ;)
 
California has updated its state guidelines again, and effective from April 1st, major parks will be allowed to re-open as long as their counties stay out of the purple tier.

deadline.com

California To Allow Reopening Of Disneyland, Other Theme Parks, Outdoor Sports Stadiums On April 1

California health officials announced that the state will allow reopening of outdoor stadiums and theme parks beginning April 1st.
deadline.com deadline.com
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/CDPH Document Library/COVID-19/Dimmer-Framework-September_2020.pdf (page 6)

A couple of caveats:
  • Masks will be mandatory at all locations
  • The parks will be open to California residents only

As for what parks can expect depending on their county's tier:

Purple tier (case rate over 10 per 100,000)
Park is to be closed.

Provided the park's county stays out of the purple tier for more than three weeks, parks may reopen in the following tiers:

Red tier (case rate over 4 per 100,000 after 2 million vaccine doses have been administrated in the state, 6 per 100,000 after 4 million doses):
  • 15% capacity
  • Max 10 people per group or 3 households worth
  • Indoor capacity max 15% with "time restrictions"
  • No indoor dining

Orange tier (case rate over 1 per 100,000 after 2 million doses, 2 per 100,000 after 4 million):
  • 25% capacity both outdoors and indoors
  • No group limits, apparently
  • Indoor dining allowed with modifications

Yellow tier (case rate under 1 per 100,000 after 2 million doses, 2 per 100,000 after 4 million):
  • 35% outdoor capacity
  • 25% indoor capacity
 
Two steps forward, one step back for Swedish parks, as the April 11th date is set, but the proposed regulations now include that park capacity is going to be determined by one guest per 20 square meters of walkable space, compared to malls which only require 10.

Good luck with opening Monster, Gröna Lund.
 
cookie said:
Two steps forward, one step back for Swedish parks, as the April 11th date is set, but the proposed regulations now include that park capacity is going to be determined by one guest per 20 square meters of walkable space, compared to malls which only require 10.

Good luck with opening Monster, Gröna Lund.
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If my calculations are right that means 1902 people in Grona Lund if one considers the entire plot.

Compared to about 8500 people in the likes of Blackpool Pleasure Beach or Liseberg with that restriction in place to give you an idea.

However if we can only consider walkable space those figures would be reduced drastically. Maybe 10-20%?
That would never be viable, even for Alton Towers, only if you can consider the green spaces.
 
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I really worry that we ain't seen the last of Covid 19. Look at the sharp rise in cases in the last few weeks in Italy. A year ago Italy really was the start of the mayhem in Europe. 😖
Another total shutdown ordered. Leaving it to Easter I doubt will do much but partial closures till then at least.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56382608

At this stage I'm willing to give up any theme parks for the next year as long as I can travel across the pond to see family. Doubt I'm the only one.

I've got the BPB season ticket, which only cost £48 but I haven't booked anything. Really not sure I will bother. Maybe later on in the summer.

Also just read Disneyland Paris, which planned to reopen at Easter has postponed reopening date.
What a nightmare for all these parks.
www.yahoo.com

Disneyland Paris Postpones Reopening Plan Indefinitely

The theme park was set to resume operations on April 2, but announced Friday it will remain closed until further notice as Paris' COVID-19 cases surge.
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com
 
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It is worth noting that Europe is generally behind the UK in terms of vaccine rollout, which doesn’t help; in Britain, the vaccines are already drastically slashing hospital admissions and deaths among fully vaccinated groups.
 
No opening dates for German parks so far. Zoos are reopening but only outdoor. But as the Robert Koch Institute predicts 200-400 cases per 100k by Easter its unlikely anything will reopen here soon. And even Zoos and Museums will close again when we hit 100 cases per 100k - these might vary slightly from state to state.

Every German should get a free corona test once a week at a test center but tests itself are not readily available and for example at my town - about pop 20.000 - the tests are done by the Johanniter by poeple who do this unsalaried after their work - so the test center is only open mon-fri 17-20 - and atm there are no time timeslots for a test this or next week.

Vaccination in my state opened for the 2nd phase for citizens over 70 and for poeple with chronic conditions - I fall into the latter but still need a written statement from my doctor which I will get Friday. I then hope to get my vaccination in the next weeks.
 
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Shops are closing again in Germany with the exception of supermarkets and pharmacies.

More politicians pressure the government to ambandon the EU vaccine plans and buy/produce vaccines for ourselves. Most prominently they want that Germany should buy the Russian Sputnik V.

Public opinion is mostly that the EU Commission failed while even Donald Trump was better in buying vaccines.
 
I tried to go to six flags over Texas Sunday and all the reservations were full but we went anyway... there were lines for parking and we got up to the front and they said there were over 20,000 people there and they weren’t taking any more walk-ups! Forget Covid!
 
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