By Christian Sylt | Forbes
Developing a theme park is far from child’s play, especially in the current economic climate. The coronavirus brought dark clouds to the industry as parks around the world temporarily closed their doors and froze their expansion budgets. It has driven the development of a tool which could help operators assess new opportunities despite budgets being on hold.
Theme parks appear to be built with magic but manpower is actually needed to make them. Testimony to this, it took 456 designers and 5,500 workmen six years to create Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi, the world’s biggest indoor theme park. The 1.6 million square feet facility opened in 2018 at an estimated cost of $1 billion and can comfortably accommodate up to 2 million visitors annually. We will never know how much could have been saved by making it smaller but the data for this kind of blue sky thinking is now available to enthusiasts.
