Minus the big coasters or marketing budgets of some of their UK rivals, Gulliver’s parks sometimes slip under the radar. Yet the family-run and family-focused operations enjoy the distinction of sharing the only theme park brand in the country with more than one site.
Over the past few years, the group added a fourth location to its portfolio but also lost one of its founders. A time for reflection, then, for managing director Julie Dalton as Gulliver’s Theme Parks and Resorts reaches 45 – an age older than not just its young guests but also many of their parents.
“We’re still very much aimed at that 2 to 13 age group,” says Dalton. When her parents Ray and Hilary Phillips launched Gulliver’s Kingdom at Matlock Bath in Derbyshire back in 1978, she was part of that target demographic herself. Hilary sadly passed away last summer, but remained a driving force in the business for many years.
Dalton recently uncovered an old newspaper interview with her mother, published just a couple of months after the opening of the first park.
“The journalist asked, ‘Is Gulliver’s going to get bigger?’ And she said, ‘Well obviously. Where it will go we have no idea, but it will just keep growing.’ It was a brave new world for mum and dad, having never done leisure before. But she was a calming influence, a level head as my dad ploughed ahead with everything.”
The growth of Gulliver’s Theme Parks
In the tales of Gulliver’s Travels by Irish author Jonathan Swift, the explorer travels to “several remote nations of the world”. Forty-five years after the opening of Gulliver’s Kingdom, the group operates theme parks in four different parts of the UK. Each of its sites is based loosely on the world of Lilliput. However, the themed zones inside include more tried and tested overlays such as dinosaurs, pirates and the Wild West.
With parks and resorts also in Warrington, Cheshire (Gulliver’s World); Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire (Gulliver’s Land); and Rotherham, South Yorkshire (Gulliver’s Valley); it does not quite have nationwide coverage. But Gulliver’s does enjoy access to some large population bases, from the North West to the South East of England.
Conveniently from an operational point of view, each resort has another within a maximum of two hours drive. Or just 45 minutes in the case of Gulliver’s Kingdom and the newest site, Gulliver’s Valley Resort in Rotherham.
Gulliver’s and the evolution of UK parks and attractions
“I don’t think any of us could have foreseen 45 years ago what this business would become,” says Dalton. “In the 1980s, there just weren’t these things in Great Britain called theme parks. There were some very nice parks in America, but really all we had were seaside parks. I think Alton Towers had only just put in the Corkscrew [roller coaster].”
Model villages, however, were more common at the time. And that’s what the Phillips family began with on a 15-acre (6-hectare) hillside site overlooking Mattock Bath, which was once home to the Palais Royal hotel and gardens.
The Derbyshire town has a history as a resort dating back to Victorian times when the Derwent Valley railway line was built and people came to sample the thermal springs.
Gulliver’s Theme Parks: a family affair
A builder by trade, Ray Phillips made the miniature houses and buildings at Gulliver’s Kingdom, and much of the ‘real life’ infrastructure too. Julie baked cakes for the café with her mother and also worked on the gate. Her brothers Duncan and Nick helped out around the site, pushing trolleys up and down the hill. “We didn’t have to worry about dieting,” laughs Dalton.
When the family decided to build a second park (the resort model was still some way off), they chose a totally different kind of location.
“Dad was a serial entrepreneur,” says Dalton. “Once he’d got Gulliver’s Kingdom up and running, it was a case of what’s next? There was no more land at Matlock, so he went out and found another site, on the flat, which was easier.”
The site chosen for Gulliver’s World in Warrington, midway between Liverpool and Manchester, couldn’t have been more different to Matlock. Not only was it significantly bigger (80 acres/32 hectares), with a greater local population, but the Phillips also had more freedom to build what they wanted thanks to the area’s ‘new town’ status when the park opened in 1989.
“The new town absolutely worked for us,” says Dalton. “It gave us the ability to work with a local authority rather than have all the planning issues we’ve encountered at Matlock.”
Second gate and themed accommodation
It’s no coincidence that Milton Keynes, where Gulliver’s Land opened near Willen Lake in 1999, was also a new town (now a city). The Gulliver’s brand had moved south. This was also the location of the chain’s first, and still only, ‘second gate’. Gulliver’s Eco Park, which opened in 2007, now trades as Gulliver’s Dinosaur & Farm Park.
It is at the Milton Keynes and Warrington parks that Gulliver’s guests will find the greatest range of resort accommodation. Each features a mix of glamping facilities. Themed options range from dinosaur, pirate, Western and princess suites/lodges to the world’s only JCB-themed cabin. Just the thing for junior construction fans. Gulliver’s World Resort is also home to the first Gulliver’s Hotel, a timber-clad structure in keeping with its woodland surroundings.
Ray Phillips might not be hands-on any more, but much of the building work is still carried out in-house by the Gulliver’s team. That goes for some of the attractions in the parks too, though this has become more difficult as material costs have soared since the pandemic.
“Nick [Phillips, development director], bless him, is probably a little bit greyer around the gills than he was two years ago,” says Dalton. “It’s hard work, but we fully believe in buying British wherever we can and putting that money back into the local economy”.
Italian manufacturers including Zamperla have supplied some of the parks’ rides, but importing them now takes longer since Brexit.
Anniversary challenges (and opportunities)
Whilst clearly pleased to be celebrating 45 years in the industry, Dalton is under no illusion that the business climate in which she will be operating this season will be among the most challenging of her career.
“I don’t think there is any amusement park, leisure attraction or hospitality business in the country that is not crying out for people. We have a skills shortage. Brexit has put a massive strain on our productivity because we cannot fill those lower-level roles. If you’re having to ask your managers and supervisors to clean rooms because you’ve got no housekeepers, they cannot be doing the training and the upskilling to move the businesses forward.”
The good news? “People still want to go out and do things. I think there has been a complete reset in the way people view work and leisure. A lot of those who managed to survive on 80% of their income during the pandemic are now only working four days a week. That increases their ability to come away for a weekend. Those staycations and mini breaks are coming through really strongly.”
Dalton adds a proviso. “Who knows where the cost of living is going to go, or what external forces are going to come into play over the next 12 months? That’s the nature of the game nowadays. But we had a good [February] half term. The accommodation was full; you couldn’t get any more people into our sites.”
The changing leisure landscape
As the leisure industry has evolved to cater to changing lifestyles, its offerings are more diverse than ever.
“The two-hour activity – play areas, bowling, escape rooms, immersive experiences – are now part of life,” says Dalton. “There weren’t many bowling alleys in the country 45 years ago. We had a cinema in Matlock, with two screens. There weren’t multiplexes then. Farm parks have appeared almost out of nowhere, and there are some amazing ones around the county.”
“People’s wants and requirements have changed significantly,” she adds. “They need to feel they’ve had a quality time. Guest experience is absolutely critical. It’s very easy now with the internet to let everybody know if you’ve had a good or bad experience.”
But for Gulliver’s theme parks, some things have not changed. “Value is still central to everything we do, and families are still the Holy Grail. And actually, children haven’t changed very much. They may have computers, phones or tablets. But let them play and use their imaginations. That’s how you stimulate a child and create those magical family moments.”
“Yes there is an older market,” says Dalton. “But that market wants tallest, highest, fastest. Those things are very expensive to put in.”
New attractions and seasonal events
From April, visitors to the Gulliver’s World park in Warrington will be able to enjoy the new Grand Prix Racers roller coaster from the SBF/Visa Group. Along with a pendulum ride from the same manufacturer called Overdrive, the coaster will form part of the park’s new Gears zone. Rides of the same name already exist at two other parks, Gulliver’s Valley in Rotherham and Gulliver’s Land in Milton Keynes.
All four Gulliver’s resorts will be kick-starting the season with the Spring Spectacular. Promising “mad-cap antics and eggscellent entertainment”, the month-long celebration is a relatively new addition to the calendar compared to more established Halloween and Christmas events. This winter, management also found ways to extend the season beyond December at Gulliver’s Land and Gulliver’s World.
At Land of Lights in Milton Keynes, 7,000 lanterns and hundreds of thousands of LED lights illuminated Gulliver’s Dinosaur & Farm Park right through until the end of February. Depicting animals, monuments and wonders of the natural world, the displays were created by a Chinese partner.
“The park would normally be closed for that period, but it was a super new attraction and proved phenomenally popular,” says Dalton.
In Warrington, an after-hours dinosaur encounter was offered within the Lost World area of the park from mid-January until the end of March. In tandem with his, Twilight Trail sleepovers were available at the Gulliver’s World Resort.
Night at the theme park
Even though a large percentage of Gulliver’s guests travel from within a one-hour drive, staying on-site is an appealing prospect for many.
“Why do you need to travel for four hours to go on a mini break?” asks Dalton. “A new market that’s emerged for us over the past couple of years is residential visits from schools. They can achieve everything they want to do – team building, peer group networking – two miles down the road. And for the children, it’s absolutely amazing to come and sleep the night in a theme park.”
Gulliver’s Kingdom in Matlock Bath, which remains the smallest of the Gulliver’s theme parks, will get new sleepover options this season. Meanwhile, at Gulliver’s Valley, there is now double the number of accommodation units than at launch in July 2020.
Three new rides and a Gears zone have been added to the 15-acre theme park that anchors the resort. A ‘skills street’ is planned for the large building at the front of the park, allowing young guests to role-play various activities.
Meanwhile, the team has also been able to make many of the finishing touches that previously weren’t possible due to a shortage of cash, lack of materials and general uncertainty after the coronavirus lockdowns. That includes new self-serve ticket booths and an app-based food ordering system.
Gulliver’s Valley Resort reflections
Dalton reflects on prospects for the wider 250-acre site (101 hectares) on the edge of Rother Valley Country Park.
“It’s been an interesting start, but we still don’t know what Rotherham will or won’t do. We were in capped numbers until the middle of last year. So we’ve not really done a lot of marketing for the Gulliver’s Valley park yet. That would previously have been unheard of for a new site.”
Dalton is hopeful that the events of the past three years have brought about a change of thinking from those running the country when it comes to the leisure industry. This is despite the fact that the UK Government recently appointed its 12th Culture Secretary in 13 years and there is still no dedicated department for tourism.
“At some point during the pandemic, it was like somebody somewhere in Whitehall [government offices] looked and said, ‘Goodness me, this is a huge part of our economy’. Have we got that presence we deserve? No, I don’t think we have. But, it felt like a massive step forward. I think there’s a bit more of a realisation now of what the service sector, hospitality, tourism and leisure, bring to the UK.”
Fingers crossed.
Top image: Jurassic Jeeps, Gulliver’s Valley
