Reducing Costs in Your Amusement Park

Managing an amusement park budget is easy— said no one ever. If you are the one in charge of this task, be it an operations manager or park owner, you know that it’s one that never looks the same two days in a row. However, if you need some tips to try next, look no further. Here are our ideas for reducing costs in your amusement park.

Close Down Facility During Winter

If your outdoor facility is in a place where the seasons affect your revenue, you need to prepare for that. An example would be when the weather gets cold, your rides don’t function as well, or the park doesn’t attract as many people. This low traffic is the time to close the facility to limit the overhead cost such as staffing and utilities. Closing down the park also is an excellent time for maintenance needs so you don’t lose money during the peak seasons due to construction. Before you do any of this, though, make sure to run an analysis of how much money you would be making vs. losing by staying open.

Reducing Amusement Park Payroll Costs

While the weather may not affect indoor facilities, other factors might. Foot traffic in your facility always has some level of unpredictability, but you can track on average the times of the year when you may be busiest vs. slowest. When you notice trends in high attendance, prepare to hire more seasonal staff that can accommodate that number of guests. However, in the quieter months, you can save money by limiting employees’ hours or even hiring them on a seasonal basis only.

Marketing Budget Decreases/ Increases

Every quarter, you should evaluate the return cost with your marketing budget. Especially when you first launched your amusement facility, you probably invested a significant percentage of your funds into TV ads, PPC on Google, or even print ads. However, the budget you begin with will not likely remain stagnant throughout your tenure. In fact, it will probably change regularly based on the needs of your establishment. When business is good and you are getting a high amount of traffic through your doors or gates, you ultimately pull back on the spending for advertising so the profit is higher.

During slow times is when you want to up the anty. Again, tracking your spending vs. return will help you determine when you can do this. If your goal is simply to have more room in your budget, look into how much money you are projected to lose vs. your expenses. If you can afford the 10-15% dip in attendance while still being able to pay your bills, then lowering your marketing budget may work.

Think Increasing Profits Not Limiting Budget

While a good rule of thumb is to always live below your means, sometimes the goal is to increase your income, even in the business world. There are several ways to go about doing this, but one, in particular, is increasing the cost of your product or service. Do you have concessions? Does your theme park sell merchandise? If you don’t currently have those options available to your public, it would be worthwhile to start doing so.

However, if you currently have food or items for sale and need more room in your budget, consider raising your prices by 1-2% or outsourcing from an external company. In an amusement park, one of the highest types of revenue is the concessions and merchandise. Instead of getting more people to the park, sometimes a better business strategy is to earn more from your current average attendance numbers.

Schedule More Events

Do you have private party areas in your space? If you don’t, you should consider creating a few. Renting out your facility can be a huge moneymaking opportunity. You don’t even need to have separate rooms for each group for this type of event space. However, it would help if you had something that resembles it for your guests’ privacy. Using room dividers or partitions, in this case, can create private areas without adding additional rooms to your building. You can also use these movable walls for years to come in various parts of your facility. These products not only save you money now but ultimately for a long time.

How is your amusement park reducing costs and ultimately profiting every year? Let us know!