Pan India Paryatan Pvt Ltd (PIPPL), the company which owns amusement park EsselWorld is expanding its smaller format Downtown EsselWorld in three cities by 2017.
The company said it is also looking at scaling its merchandising business by setting up small kiosks at places with high footfalls such as malls and airports.
“We were ideally planning to set up about 10 Downtown EsselWorld but finding the right retail space is a challenge. We will be expanding the format by adding three more by 2017,” Shirish Despande, CEO, Pan India Paryatan, a part of Zee owned Essel group said.
Unlike the EsselWorld and Water kingdom, Downtown EsselWorld will be housed in a mall and will be spread over a 15,000-20,000 sq feet area. The company said it will host feature such as an ice zone, a cricket simulator and laser tag.
The company has a Downtown Essel World in Pune. “We will be coming up with two new Downtown EsselWorld in Amritsar and Ahmedabad soon,” he said adding the each of these may entail an investment of Rs 10 crore.
Asked on why the company did not replicate its EsselWorld model in other cities, Deshpande said the cost of setting up an amusement park was prohibitive. “Finding required land and adequate power supply to run such a facility makes the business highly unviable”.
EsselWorld had 11 lakh visitors in 2015-16. The company had reported a revenue of Rs 85 crore. Currently, ticketing accounts for about 65 per cent of its revenues and the balance from merchandise and F&B. EsselWorld’s average revenue per person including ticketing and F&B stands at Rs 783.
“We are looking at a revenue of Rs 150 crore by 2020. Our next phase of growth will come from our new format, merchandising business among others,” Deshpande said.
According a AnandRathi Institutional Research, the Indian amusement park segment is valued at $400m, compared to the $25 billion global amusement park segment. It is expected to grow 20 per cent on CAGR basis.
“With rising income levels, increased domestic tourism and rise in discretionary spending, we expect the amusement park culture to pick up significantly as an alternative source of entertainment,” the report said.
EsselWorld competes with Manmohan Shetty owned Adlabs Imagica and regional players like Vegaland and Wonderla.
Speaking about its kiosks, Deshpande said that the company had rolled out its kiosk at the airport in Mumbai. The kiosk has thrill box, entry tickets and merchandise products of EsselWorld, Water Kingdom and Downtown EsselWorld (Pune) on display and for sale.
“We had set this 80 sq feet kiosk as an experiment. The response has been tremendous. Currently, we have about 10 such kiosks in malls. We will be expanding these as well to tap on the merchandise business,” he added.
EsselWorld’s merchandise include soft toys of polar bear, panda and penguins and some stationery items.
Anand Rathi research also indicates that currently revenue composition skewed toward entry fees.
“In India, the greater share of revenue comes from ticket sales (75-80 per cent); the proportions of revenue from the sale of food and beverages (F&B), merchandise and accommodation are small. On the contrary, our study of global parks suggests that 60 per cent of revenue comes from entry fees, the balance from F&B, merchandise, accommodation and others.
“We expect the percentage of non-ticket revenue to inch toward global levels due to the mounting consumer tendency to spend on F&B and merchandise,” it added.
EOM