Imagica!!! - India's Largest Amusement Park

 

Source: flickr.com

An amusement park is an outdoor area with games, rides and shows. They are spread over a large area, often many square kilometers. Young and old visitors can enjoy many types of attractions.

Amusement parks also offer restaurants and bars to eat and drink, as well as green areas with grass to sit down and relax.


Foundation

Spread over 138 acres, Imagica offers India’s largest theme park, a water park, India’s largest snow park and first theme park hotel – the Novotel Imagica – and is located off the Mumbai–Pune expressway at Khopoli, Maharashtra.

It also features Nitro, the longest, tallest, fastest roller coaster – 40.2 m (132 ft.) high with over 853.4 m (2,800 ft.) of track length at 120 km/hr.

It also has Deep Space – India’s first dark coaster; The first simulation ride to give a flying experience over India; Mr. India – the first Bollywood-movie based ride in India; Rajasauras – India’s longest flume ride of 470 m; and Wrath of Gods – the first theme park attraction in India combining live theatre, special effects and multimedia.

Another best of Imagica is Saleem garh, the Haunted House where they freak out you the most.

It has the biggest outside roller coaster - 4 seater per row and with an awesome experience.


The Planning and Comparisons

Imagica had been planning a theme park since 2008. It is a global standard theme park modelled on some of the best around the world. Spread over 130 acres, it is India’s largest theme park — about two to three times the size of Universal Studio in Singapore or Hong Kong Disneyland.

Since it was opened in 2013, they had 5.5 million visitors, added a water park, a 287-room hotel and a snow park. They have largely achieved what visitors wanted. But it should have been done 2.2 million visitors a year; currently they are at 1.5-1.6 million. Therefore, the gap is stressing the interest payment and debt repayment. (Imagica was set up at a capital cost of Rs 16 billion. Current debt stands at Rs 10.5 billion and interest payment is Rs 1.2 billion per annum. In FY 2017, its revenues stood at Rs 2.39billion and losses were Rs 1.1 billion).


Business Planning

In India, nobody differentiates between a theme park and an amusement park. When marketed to schools, the argument is ‘if you do not give us a lower price, we will go to EsselWorld’. (Imagica’s ARPU at Rs 1,700 per head is higher than any other park) It does have a special price for schools, which is competitive but the entertainment value we are providing, as well as the service standards have to be considered. Also, when school kids visit, they face time constraints, therefore, are not allowed to enjoy all the rides. So, they have built an element of education, where we show them the water plant and the solid waste treatment plant.

It has four major clusters of consumers — schools, corporates who use it for team-building exercises, dealer meets, or awards functions, visiting friends and family, and walk-ins. Unlike films, this product requires a time commitment, so people say, ‘I would love to go but will decide later’. Building urgency is key. It does that by creating time-bound reasons for a visit like events and festivals. For example, there is Imagica for Night, music events, New Year events and a month-long magic festival.


Challenges Faced in Marketing

From a brand standpoint, they have to focus more on educating people on what a theme park is all about. They want to talk to everyone coming to Mumbai and Pune. But TV is a high-burn medium, so they do not want to use it that much. Digital works well. They also find print works, especially to reach regional markets. After every print ad, the inflow to the call center increases and online booking goes up by as much as 10-15 per cent.

All consumer acquisition costs are stable and they have reduced cash impact with partnerships like the one with Times of India Brand Capital. It is a high fixed-cost business, so it cannot be a one-park story. They are looking forward for Delhi next, which is a huge project to plan. All the best to IMAGICA.


FOR MORE INFORMATION: Imagica Amusement Park


Written by - Jesvin Joseph
Edited by - Prachi Raheja