Help out a college student with a roller coaster project!

[SharkTums]

Can anyone out there help my brother a bit on this interesting project he has in school right now? Here's some info:

 

I'm looking for links relating to "threat of new Entrants" for the amusement park industry. aka like legoland coming to central florida, and what you said about the company that owns them making a universal/seaworld/legoland ticket to compete with disney. Thanks!

 

Please help him out!! Sounds like a very interesting project!

[Ace Of Spades]

Would discussions here on TPR count as an official source?

[themeparkman25]

Is he conducting a SWOT analysis?

[SharkTums]

^I honestly don't know...but I'm sure whatever you could provide would be helpful.

 

I don't think discussions on TPR would count as a source unless you were looking for an 'educated opinion' type statement, but any of the news articles posted would certainly count.

 

Thanks guys!

[Ace Of Spades]

Here's an excellent one, found it in less than five seconds!

 

www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/01/22/will-legoland-florida-hurt-or-help-disney.aspx

 

Hope it helps!

[Brandon4579]

(Now that I can post again) did those links that i emailed you help?

[SharkTums]

^I sent them to my brother so I don't know if they helped or not.

[MG]

What sort of level is this being aimed at? How old is your brother?

I do Geography so I can analyse this sort of stuff quite well. London is actually quite a good example of how markets can conflict. Thorpe Park, CWOA and Legoland Windsor. Thorpe Park changed its target demographic from 8-12 year olds to 14-18 year olds so that it wouldn't compete with it's sister park Chessington. However, originally as a competitor, Legoland began to affect Chessington, despite Legoland being aimed at 4-8 year olds whilst Chessington is aimed at roughly 6-10 year olds. Now they are all owned by the same company, Merlin, it is unclear what Merlin's final objective is. Since Chessington and Legoland pretty much directly compete, the only way that Merlin can play it is to attract local residents to Chessington, whilst relying on the tourism markets from further away to draw visitors to Legoland.

There you have a report from your international correspondent.

[GrantWhite]

Hello, yes i am elissa's brother. I am graduating from UCF with MIS degree and I have one last class left where i have to do a industry analysis. Heres the actual part im doing in this group project.

 

Threat of New Entrants ( to the amusement park industry - Central Florida area)

 

Should answer the following questions:

1. What does the force mean?

2. What entities (major players) are involved?

3. Is the force a major or minor factor to this industry? Why?

4. Conclusion: What is the effect of this force on the industry’s attractiveness? Is there anything the industry can do to overcome major threats?

 

Any links for research would be helpful THANKS!

[Chroniq]

[*]

Hello, yes i am elissa's brother. I am graduating from UCF with MIS degree and I have one last class left where i have to do a industry analysis. Heres the actual part im doing in this group project.

 

Threat of New Entrants ( to the amusement park industry - Central Florida area)

 

Should answer the following questions:

1. What does the force mean?

2. What entities (major players) are involved?

3. Is the force a major or minor factor to this industry? Why?

4. Conclusion: What is the effect of this force on the industry’s attractiveness? Is there anything the industry can do to overcome major threats?

 

Any links for research would be helpful THANKS!

 

 

Threat of new entrants is a topic that I hold dear to me heart. lol.. seriously.

 

If you haven't began research in earnest, I'd like to recommend you change your scope of focus. There are many compelling areas in the amusement industry that have prominent companies on the threshold of entering an established area. The idea of zamperla modernizing coney island is something that could dramatically effect Six Flags Great Adventure's bottom line as Long Island residents are their most profitable demographic.

 

 

That being said, you can establish a great argument that Warners Brothers and JK Rowling are new entrants into the well established Orlando theme park business. They have essentially forced Universal/NBC/Comcast/Blah into building an attraction/land that will, for the time being, end the walmarting of Orlando themeparks.

 

As an entrant they have forced Disney to redesign their aging fantasyland in WDW. To even question the thought that the fantasyland redesign being greenlighted isn't a direct response to Harry Potter is asinine.

 

Regarding your Fourth Question; The amusement industy is only made stronger by competition. It remains one of the only businesses that competition is a protagonist. Orlando was a swamp 40 years ago, today it a mecca of theme park industry.

 

 

Chris "I'd write more, but no one reads my long posts" Con

[MG]

Sorry Grant, but I don't know what your degree means! It's a completely different education system. I'm guessing that you're a university student so I may be unqualified to answer your questions.

Now for the questions:

1) By the 'force' I assume you mean the business moving into the area. Merely the presence of an amusement park does not necessarily mean that any existing parks are going to be negatively affected by it. It all depends on the demographics, like the example of London I used earlier. The demographics often determine what the park aims to be, a park with a young target audience is likely to be a family park, the visitors are likely to be slightly wealthier due to their more mature years. A park with a teenage target audience is likely to be a thrill park, its visitors are likely to be significantly worse off as a result of their age. In essence, 2 even 3 amusement parks can operate in the same area without affecting each other. It's just like cars, teenagers want a cool fast small car, whereas families with children are going to want a larger, safer car.

2) Florida, I'm not so familiar with the parks but I've got a general idea, especially note the conversion of Cypress Gardens to Legoland. Florida is fairly unique in that many of the parks are famous enough to be visited merely as tourist attractions, and not as a side product as a result of a different holiday

Here is my list:

Universal - Teenagers

Disney - Families with young children

Busch Gardens - Teenagers (I think! I'm bound to be corrected) [Merlin Entertainments]

Cypress Gardens=>Legoland - becoming for families with young children [Merlin Entertainments]

Sea World - Families with older children [Merlin Entertainments]

There are also the water parks which act as a seperate entity to the other parks. As you can see, the main conflicts are Universal-Busch and Disney-Legoland. Merlin has a growing power which could become the main topic of your essay.

3) Merlin would be a serious contender in the industry, although its parks are slightly less well known, they are still world class attractions nevertheless. However they are unlikely to significantly negatively affect Universal and Disney directly simply due to the huge numbers of visitors involved in visiting these attractions.

4) There isn't really much of a threat to the industry. All parks in this area (excluding Cypress Gardens) largely do well to my knowledge. There may be the threat of a slight monopoly by Merlin, this seems to be affecting other cities as well, including London. It would also be interesting to point out that the parent of Merlin Entertainments is the private equity firm, Blackstone. They apparently have a significant stake in Six Flags as well.

I'm sure if I have made any factual errors I will be quickly corrected by my fellow members. As for links, it isn't really a formal research area, therefore few hard facts actually exist. You simply have to use knowledge of other businesses and apply that to the amusement industry. They work in exactly the same way.

Hope this helps

Any more questions