Give Them a Reason to Visit, and They WILL Visit

Ocean Park had a fabulous 15 years from 2000 to 2015. It turned red ink into black ink beginning in 2001. 2003 would have continued with profitability if not for the epidemic of SARS which had a major negative effect on all businesses in Hong Kong and surrounding regions. Once SARS was contained, the Park continued its rise and never looked back.

If we were to give credit to how the turnaround began and how it was sustained, it has to be the implementation of the special event Halloween. With this event’s success, it gave confidence to a strategy to move forward. If one special event could be successful in delivering attendance, revenues, and profitability (surplus), imagine what multiple special events throughout the year could produce.

The rationale behind this thinking was born out of the situation analysis - give people a reason to visit. Ocean Park was known for its entertainment, conservation, and education offerings. All great reasons to visit. The special event, Halloween became another reason. In that case, developing other special events would surely mean even more reasons to visit. It would invite the public to visit the park multiple times a year, yielding repeated visits to participate in all the special events.

With this thinking, 5 special events were created each year for Halloween, Christmas, Chinese New Year, Easter, and Summer. That means 5 more reasons to visit. If you did visit for all 5 events, it was greatly appreciated. If you visited 2 events, that was twice more than you would have visited if the Park did not provide reasons to visit.

Over those 15 years, annual park attendance grew steadily from 2.8 million to 7.6 million, a magnificent journey. Remember the 3 goals mentioned earlier? The Park achieved them.

1. Stopped the bleeding and turned red ink into black ink.

2. Won back the confidence of stakeholders internal and external through profitability.

3. With profitability, we were able to reinvest in the Park with a Master Redevelopment Plan.

Ocean Park turned into a best-in-class, world-class attraction.

In 2012, Ocean Park was awarded the prestigious APPLAUSE AWARD, the Oscars equivalent in the attractions industry. It was recognized by all its peers in the industry through IAAPA, the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. We had turned a failing theme park into one of the best attractions in the world.

The take away here is to listen to your customers.

I learned years ago as a young salesman:

Give them what they want and chances are they will buy.

Learn from the situation analysis and address the issues that prevent business from growing.