After years of reining in spending,
Aney Salas was prepared to open a bit for her kids to have some
fun. So they headed to Knott’s Berry Farm, a 73-year-old
amusement park nearby Los Angeles. The draw, other than nine
terrifying drum coasters: annual passes that cost $72 each,
payable in 6 monthly installments of $12.

“A remuneration devise unequivocally helps,” a 31-year-old mom of
four pronounced while shepherding her group out of a car. “It makes
it unequivocally affordable.”

Matthew Ouimet, authority and arch executive officer of
Cedar Fair LP (FUN), that owns 16 entertainment and H2O parks including
Knott’s, expects assemblage and sales during a association to exceed
last year’s annals in partial due to pricing initiatives such as
the remuneration devise introduced in Feb 2012.

Knott’s, handling in a shade of Disneyland only six
miles away, also offers a discount of as most as 38 percent off
the $60 single-day sheet to people who buy in allege online.
Customers who hatred watchful can compensate $35 additional to cut to a front
on 12 renouned rides such as Montezooma’s Revenge, that sends
riders “zooming” brazen and back by a seven-story
loop.

“We’re saying a barbell economy,” Ouimet pronounced over the
screams of roller-coaster riders in a park. Some consumers are
willing to compensate additional for perks such as slicing lines, while
others need “a some-more benefit-oriented” pitch.

Canada’s Wonderland

Even on vacation, some travelers sojourn cost-conscious.
Visits to Orlando, Florida, a theme-park collateral of a U.S.,
reached a record 56.8 million final year, according to a local
tourism authority. But air travel to Orlando was down, according
to internal airport data, suggesting expansion came from travelers
piling into cars instead of profitable for craft tickets.

Cedar Fair, formed in Sandusky, Ohio, owns Kings Island in
Cincinnati, Canada’s Wonderland in Toronto and Dorney Park in
Allentown, Pennsylvania. Two-thirds of guest live within 100
miles of a parks they visit, creation them some-more expected to
purchase deteriorate passes, Ouimet said.

Sales of passes climbed 10 percent final year with the
introduction of a remuneration plan, Ouimet said. Customers using
passes accounted for roughly 40 percent of a 23 million visits
to Cedar Fair parks final year, adult from one-third a year
before. The loyalists turn salespeople, he said, convincing
friends and family to buy passes, too. The association lifted the
price by 7.4 percent in January.

Anaheim Neighbor

Walt Disney Co. (DIS) lifted a cost of a reward annual pass
to Disneyland and California Adventure in Anaheim by 30 percent
last year, to $649. The boost follows a $1.1 billion
remodeling of California Adventure that enclosed the
introduction of a Cars Land attraction.

“They put a poignant investment in to change the
character of that park,” pronounced Matthew Earnest, a principal at
theme-park consultant Entertainment Culture Advisors in
Beverly Hills, California. “That helps clear a higher
price.”

Attendance during Disney’s domestic parks rose 3 percent in the
year finished Sept. 29, a association pronounced in a annual report.
Operating income climbed 22 percent to $1.9 billion, a company
said. Its shares are adult 26 percent this year. Disney also sells
Southern California residents passes good for reduction than half the
days in a year for $269.

At Cedar Fair, net income rose 43 percent in 2012 to $101
million, or $1.81 a share, on a 3.9 percent benefit in income to
$1.07 billion. Profit was still next a $161 million rise in
2005. Shares of Cedar Fair tripled from 2010 to 2012 and have
also gained 26 percent this year.

Magic Mountain

Southern California has prolonged upheld a accumulation of theme
parks, from premium-priced Disneyland and a elaborate
attractions to Universal Studios, Six Flags Magic Mountain and
Knott’s. All offer deteriorate passes and remuneration options.

Sales during Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (SIX), formed in Grand
Prairie, Texas, rose 5.6 percent to $1.07 billion final year as
attendance increasing 6 percent. Its shares have risen 19 percent
this year. SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (SEAS), tranquil by Blackstone
Group LP (BX), sole batch in an Apr 19 initial open charity at
the tip of a due range. Shares of a Orlando-based
company are adult 24 percent given then.

Ouimet, a 17-year Disney maestro who led a company’s
Anaheim review before vacating in 2006, has been adding
attractions on a some-more singular bill given he assimilated Cedar Fair
two years ago.

Wilderness Scrambler

He’s powdering off an aged float called a Wilderness
Scrambler that was in storage and reintroducing it as partial of a
remodeling of Knott’s family-oriented Boardwalk area opening May
25. He’s also restoring aged models of California’s Spanish
missions, Catholic outposts dating from 1760s to 1830s, that
were a underline of Knott’s in a 1950s, for arrangement in the
park’s Western-themed Ghost Town.

Cedar Fair skeleton to spend about $100 million on capital
improvements this year, a association said. That includes the
GateKeeper, a swift drum coaster opening May 11 during a Cedar
Point park in Sandusky.

The float got a name given it roars over a front gate
where acknowledgment booths once stood. The gates are reduction crowded
these days given some-more visitors are shopping in allege or flashing
season passes to get in, Ouimet said. That doesn’t meant they
don’t stop to demeanour during a cars resounding down a lane overhead.

“Coasters,” he said, “are easy to market.”

To hit a contributor on this story:
Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles at
cpalmeri1@bloomberg.net

To hit a editor obliged for this story:
Anthony Palazzo at
apalazzo@bloomberg.net

Enlarge image

Montezooma Gets Revenge as Cedar Fair Increases Revenue

Tricia Spaulding/Lexington Herald-Leader/MCT/Getty Images

The Delirium swings like a pendulum during King’s Island thesis park in Cincinnati. Cedar Fair LP, formed in Sandusky, Ohio, owns Kings Island, Canada’s Wonderland in Toronto and Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The Delirium swings like a pendulum during King’s Island thesis park in Cincinnati. Cedar Fair LP, formed in Sandusky, Ohio, owns Kings Island, Canada’s Wonderland in Toronto and Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Photographer: Tricia Spaulding/Lexington Herald-Leader/MCT/Getty Images