Parques Reunidos overcomes the sector’s seasonality thanks to Halloween

• Parques Reunidos’ effort to optimize its assets as part of its growth strategy has managed to capitalise on Halloween to overcome the sector’s typical seasonality.
• The Group’s parks in Spain have welcomed 600,000 more visitors than during the same period last year.
• In Spain, the amount invested by leisure and theme parks represents between 10% and 20% of their annual budget.

Madrid, 18th November 2014. – Every year, the Parques Reunidos Group, worldwide leading leisure park operator with 56 parks in 12 countries, prepares its premises and products for Halloween, in order to optimize the experience for its guests. The result of this year’s activity has led to an 4.8% increase in visits compared to the same period last year just in Spain, which means that the Group’s Spanish parks received nearly 600,000 more guests in the Halloween season.

Through its parks’ special offer for All Hallows’ Eve (including special attractions, menus and shows), Parques Reunidos has managed to overcome the typical seasonality experienced by leisure parks and join together the summer and Halloween periods. Starting at the end of September and lasting until the beginning of November, Halloween represents one of the most important seasons in terms of footfall and, thanks to the Group’s effort to improve its offering, added to favourable weather conditions, Parques Reunidos has been able to minimise the gap between seasons.

In order to continuously improve the experience for its customers, the Groups focuses part of its growth strategy on optimising the assets currently in its portfolio. Thus, Parques Reunidos has developed an investment plan of 200 million euros over the next three years for the optimisation of its park portfolio aimed at attracting 2 million additional visitors. The investment to optimize theme and leisure parks for Halloween has reached 1 million euros just in Spain. Both Parque de Atracciones de Madrid, where the investment represented nearly 20% of the annual budget, and Parque Warner Madrid, where the investment was nearly 15% of the annual budget, made significant efforts to provide their visitors with a best-in-class Halloween experience.

One example of these optimisation efforts is the latest addition to Parque de Atracciones de Madrid, which has joined forces with AMC (American Movie Classics) to bring the successful TV series “The Walking Dead” from the small screen to Parque de Atracciones in “The Walking Dead Experience”. But leisure parks were not the only ones to undergo a transformation for Halloween; Parques Reunidos’ zoos also dressed up. In Spain, Faunia, Zoo Aquarium de Madrid and Selwo Aventura offered special activities, so the Halloween spirit could be felt at all the Group’s parks.

Other leisure parks also invested in updating their offer for Halloween, with special attractions and shows. The atmosphere could be felt at parks such as Movie Park Germany, which celebrated the 16th edition of its Halloween Horror Fest, Mirabilandia in Italy, where zombies rose from their graves after sunset, Bobbejaanland in Belgium and Tusenfryd in Norway.

About Parques Reunidos

Parques Reunidos is one of the leading, fastest-growing leisure park operators in the world. The Group portfolio is made up of 56 operations (theme or amusement parks, animal parks, water parks, marine life parks, family entertainment centers and cable cars). The Group has continued its expansion in recent years, cementing its position as a leader in the Spanish leisure sector and a reference operator in this market at both the European and international level, receiving about 26.2 million visitors every year in 12 countries in the Americas and Europe. For more information about Parques Reunidos please visit www.parquesreunidos.com

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Press Contact

Hill + Knowlton Strategies
Alberto Chávez / Álvaro Pérez
Tel. (+34) 91 435 11 22
alberto.chavez@hkstrategies.com
alvaro.perez@hkstrategies.com
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Parques Reunidos external communications department

Tel.: (+34) 91 526 97 00
parquesreunidos.comu@grpr.com
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