London resort holdings company has released this statement today regarding the future of london "not paramount" resort. As follows:
“This final round of consultation will be a crucial step towards completing our plans for the world class entertainment resort. We have subjected our project to considerable rigour in recent months, transformed it, and in turn are creating an inspirational and deliverable scheme. We are encouraged that industry experts have fully endorsed our decision to pursue a multi-IP, two gate strategy.
“We are delighted with progress on partnership agreements. We plan to build over 3,500 hotel rooms, operated by our new partner, Intercontinental Hotel Group; constructing the majority of the Resort and new roads and infrastructure with materials stored at and transported from Port of Tilbury, with whom we have recently signed an agreement. We are now in very detailed commercial negotiations regarding partners, the concepts they are embracing and some of the incredible creative propositions.
“We are encouraged and supported by our local authority partners to take the time to get this right; we have listened to our stakeholders and will now be consulting the public early in 2018 and submitting the Development Consent Order application in Spring of 2018. Our grand opening date is planned for 2023.
“The London Resort is a first for the UK. Not just because we are the first Business and Commercial Nationally Significant Infrastructure project, but more than that, together we are creating a Global Entertainment Resort without parallel in this country, propelling us into the top ten theme park resorts in the world. We are combining an investment of £3.2bn, just 17 minutes from the top tourist City destination in the world, alongside globally recognised brands, stories and characters from the world of television, film, books and games.”
What's interesting about this is that they are proposing two gates which could hopefully mean two fully built out theme parks instead of a main theme park and then a "water theme park". But seeing as the resort proposed opening date isn't planed to open until 2023!, it still may all change. Thoughts?
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As a side note, I'm starting to really question the accuracy of the TEA/AECOM reports (full disclosure, I work for AECOM, though not in the division that generates these reports). BGW just celebrated its 100 millionth guest this past week (that's based on raw turnstile data from the park). The park has been open since 1975 (43rd season), meaning if you just average those 100 million guests over the 42.5 years (assuming flat attendance across a stagnant operating schedule), you'd end up with 2.35 million guests per year. So either BGW was consistently pulling close to 2 million guests per year in their first 3 decades of operation (without Howl-O-Scream and Christmas Town), or the TEA/AECOM data are grossly inaccurate over the history of the reports (typically reported BGW in the 2.3-2.8 million range over the past 15 years). If BGW's 100 million guest count is considered accurate, the TEA/AECOM report cannot be anywhere close (current annual guest counts would need to be close to 3 million or more to account for a normal increase in annual attendance for a smaller regional park).
However, just like Hard Rock Park, here's another perspective park operator grossly overestimating the number of guests they can stuff into a new brand new resort with zero track record.
London has bad weather and it is further north than awful Paris weather. I can't expect a major theme park in London to do much better than 2 or 3 million guests per year based on mostly local tourists. They must at least do their own Pirates knockoff since a lot of British actors were in Disney's POTC movies. The park must be indoors. It's funny how I often read previously that the rich and royals often take vacation outside of the kingdom due to the poor weather. Italy? I'm there!!!
If the 3 merlin parks in the London basin can't crack the top 10, I can't see how any other park can...
...Wikipedia currently has the following unverified claim
"In July 2017, it was rumoured by various sources within the theme park community that the developers were in talks with NBC Universal[citation needed] about creating a Universal Theme Park on the site."
That might be enough to do it, maybe, if it has enough uniqueness to draw from others... However it looks like only Singapore out of the 4 open parks isn't Universal owned directly. Think this might just be the usual crap people add.
WWoHP would be a good place to start. Plus Wizard of Oz, Planet of the Apes, DreamWorks Animation, and plenty of Video Game franchises like Overwatch, Rocket League, Little Big Planet, Guitar Hero, and Minecraft.
I doubt WWHoP would be included. WB are pushing the Harry Potter experience in London at their studios.
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Top 10 theme park resorts in the world? Let's see, based on the most recent TEA/AECOM report, those resorts would be:
Walt Disney World
Tokyo Disney
Disneyland
Universal Orlando
Disneyland Paris
Shanghai Disneyland (assuming full year operation)
Chimelong Ocean Kingdom
Lotte World
Universal Studios Hollywood
Everland
So London Resort would need to beat Everland's 7.2 million annual visitors to crack that list, which currently includes only Disney, Universal, and Asian resorts. And they are spending just £3.2bn on two parks, more than 3,500 hotel rooms, a shopping/dining district, and associated infrastructure. That's not going to get you anywhere near current Disney/Universal quality for new developments.
My guess on London Resort cracking the top 10 with this plan?
No. Way. In. Hell.