The surge in domestic tourism coupled with the phenomenon of revenge travel has propelled the amusement park chain Wonderla Holidays to perform well in the last quarter with increased footfalls across its locations.
“We are back to pre-Covid levels, delivering a strong performance in each location. The profitability has been higher than ever and we are in a good place in all market locations”, said Arun K Chittilappilly, Managing Director.
Interacting with BusinessLine, the Managing Director said “Our performance is reflective of strategic focus on footfall from various segments, experimenting with new areas like events, ride plus activities, F&B offerings. We are happy with the overall business performance during the quarter and are confident that the footfall will show an uptrend across all the locations in the following quarters.”
According to him, the footfalls surpassed pre-pandemic level and achieved 32 per cent growth vis-à-vis Q2 of FY20. Footfalls in the second quarter were 4.7 lakhs compared to 3.57 lakhs during Q2FY20. Bangalore Park recorded 1.91 lakh footfalls (35 per cent above Q2 of FY20), Kochi Park recorded 1.72 lakh (38 per cent above) and Hyderabad Park at 1.06 lakh (18 per cent above).
New projects
The work on the new projects in Odisha and Chennai is to start by the end of this year, and would take another two and half years to complete. “We are spending ₹450 crore for the two projects . Besides, an additional ₹30 crore for adding water, new rides in Hyderabad park, setting up trendy outlets etc”, he added.
To a question on whether they would foresee any subdued demand due to overall business slowdown, he said “We are a low frequency avenue centre for entertainment. Lot of competitors have closed down their facilities in pandemic times and this may pick up demand”.
The company’s revenue growth was 59 per cent with gross revenue at ₹69.7 crore against ₹43.9 crore during Q2FY20. Profit after tax was ₹10.5 crore against a PAT of ₹0.16 crore. There is also a sharp rebound in resort performance with highest ever occupancy at 76 per cent and revenue was up by 78 per cent compared to Q2 of FY20, he said.