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Inbound tourism from some of the key Asian markets for amusement parks on Australia's Gold Coast has dropped off as much as 95%, prompting parks there to shift their marketing focus to the domestic population.
"We've been doing lots of deals with airlines and accommodation houses," said John Menzies, CEO of the Gold Coast's Warner Village Theme Parks, which include Warner Bros. Movie World, Wet'n Wild and Sea-World. "By incentivizing the local market and the Brisbane market heavily we've been able to offset the decline by increasing volume, albeit at a lower yield, and attacking our cost basis. "
A similar strategy has been employed at the Gold Coast's Dreamworld park.
"We've shifted to have more intense focus on our local market and we've done a lot more activity in interstate markets, particularly New South Wales," said Tony Braxton-Smith, CEO of Dreamworld. "We've always found television to be very effective, but [for interstate marketing communications] we've looked to leverage the value of promotions, particularly prizing promotions with third parties."
For example, (during) the release of the "Wild Thornberrys" movie last Easter (a high period for Australia's amusement parks), "we did a national promotion with...