3rd June 2020 
Ardent Leisure
Australia’s Gold Coast theme park operators, Village Roadshow Limited and Ardent Leisure, have joined forces in an attempt to reopen earlier than originally planned, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Currently, the Queensland Government’s recovery roadmap states that outdoor amusement parks, zoos and arcades can reopen in stage three from July 10, but with a maximum of 100 people.
According to myGC, theme park operators say that this is not viable, and that they will need to be allowed to welcome thousands of visitors.
In response, Village Roadshow Limited (VRL), which owns Warner Bros Movie World, Sea World, Wet’n’Wild and Paradise Country, has teamed up with Dreamworld owner Ardent Leisure.
Gold Coast theme parks can reopen from July
VRL and Ardent have developed new plans to hopefully allow them to permit entry to more visitors despite the COVID-19 outbreak.
“They’ve both submitted their COVID-safe plans to the Queensland Health Department and the Chief Health Officer and they are currently being assessed,” said Tourism Minister Kate Jones.
“At this stage they are in stage three of the roadmap but I’ll be meeting with them to work with them to see how we can open them up in a safe way.
“My understanding is they want to do it quickly, but the roadmap clearly states that theme parks are part of stage three.”
Theme parks want to welcome more visitors
Destination Gold Coast chairman Paul Donovan added: “Our our biggest market by a mile is the drive market, we need the theme parks open and as I understand we’ve had the COVID-safe prepared by the theme parks and by the Convention Centre and we’re just waiting for them to be approved.”
Meanwhile, VRL has agreed to takeover negotiations with private equity firm BGH Capital. BGH’s takeover offer of up to $468.5 million includes various caveats if VRL wants to receive the full offer price.
At Pico we fully support the Gold Coast’s Theme Parks request to open early and to open for thousands of people per day. Their safety procedures will make it more safe for guests to have a day of fun than a day of shopping inside a shopping centre. Let’s re-build together, our culture of social distancing has changed forever. Let’s work together with the general public and tourist operators and trust we have a bright and safe future.
Whilst I understand the logic to reopen the parks sooner rather than later is important to the economy and state! Tread carefully.
What we have to understand is that the of the back story. Both entities will have to do their pre start maintenance for the parks and that will take time, time I am sure that they have built into the re opening plan.
They will also have to retrain their staff in new safety measures, again which will take time. And the fact that I live next to both of the parks I haven’t seen much movement in that respect may only add more time. Then there’s the re-hiring some of the staff may not return as their positions were not covid safe…… Another consideration……
There are a lot of factors in this senerio.
And I can’t wait to get back into the parks myself however I will venture into the parks with open eyes.
Stay safe
Matthew