Sunway targets more visitors this year

PETALING JAYA: Sunway Theme Parks, which is due to open its latest attraction in Sunway Lagoon over the next few weeks, is looking to attract over two million visitors to its two theme parks, in Bandar Sunway and Ipoh, this year.
Senior general manager Calvin Ho (pix) said Sunway Lagoon saw a total of 1.1 million visitors last year while Lost World of Tambun saw a total of 700,000 visitors last year. This year, it aims to attract 1.3 million and 750,000 visitors to the two parks respectively.
Ho told SunBiz in an interview that the current weak ringgit could be a plus point for the tourism sector and players in the sector should leverage on this to encourage more tourists to spend their holidays in Malaysia.
On its plans to open more theme parks, Ho said the Sunway Group has alienated some land in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor with plans for an integrated development there including a theme park. However, it is still in the early stages of planning.
"We've got the land, it's natural for Sunway to eventually develop a park there but it's still at a very early stage. We have a memorandum of understanding that we signed with Seaworld Australia to look into this, but we are still looking at many other options. If this were to happen, maybe in the next five years and it depends on the tie-up or the partnership that we have, to bring into Iskandar," he said.
"We will definitely take our forte. We are already in the theme park industry for over 20 years so we will definitely take from what we have and tie-up with partners or get IPs (intellectual properties), and build an international-flavoured theme park. Most probably will be in partnership. We are still exploring various options because the market keeps changing," he added.
Sunway Lagoon, whose visitors are 60% foreign and 40% local, will see the Nickelodeon Lost Lagoon offer an international flavour to the park and further enhance the Sunway brand, attracting more international tourists into Malaysia, Ho said.
"Our main thrust for the next few years will be the Nickelodeon park but being Sunway, we continue to spend millions of ringgit every year refurbishing, rebuilding and adding more facilities for our customers. Although it may not be setting up an attraction per se, making people feel good runs in the millions," he said.
Refurbishing expenditure includes repainting and rebuilding older parts of the park to keep it looking fresh, additional buggies to shuttle people around and "heavy investment" in terms of landscaping of the park.
"We would spend close to, with Nickelodeon and other parts of the parks, RM150 million roughly this year. But this year is a bit more because of Nickelodeon. At Lost World of Tambun we spend about RM3 million to RM5 million per year on new attractions, refurbishment and so on," he said.
New attractions at Lost World of Tambun this year include the second phase of the hot spring and spa, which is to open by August this year. It is also finalising plans for a shopping mall within the park, to be named Lost World Mall.
Commenting on the outlook for the theme park industry, Ho said it will be positive with more tourists expected this year, as Malaysia is still a popular destination especially among tourists from the Arab countries.
"We still hope that the China market will return. We have a bit of challenges there but I think they just misunderstand us, it's a matter of time before they come back. If all parties, private and government put our heads together, we can win their hearts and confidence again," he said.
Ho added that the opening of other parks such as Legoland Malaysia Resort and 20th Century Fox World at Resorts World Genting would further enhance tourist arrivals and lengthen tourist stays in Malaysia, creating more awareness of Malaysian theme parks globally and marketing the country as a holiday destination.