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Rainbow's End fun park operator New Zealand Experience reported an 18.4 per cent fall in net profit to $590,000 for the half year to the end of December.
The result was a direct consequence of significantly lower visitor numbers to Rainbow's End, in South Auckland, the company said today.
The 144,500 visitors during the period was down 14 per cent from the same period last year, as well as being 7 per cent below the company's own target.
"While we anticipated reduced visitor numbers as a consequence of increased admission prices and our inability to provide a new significant attraction at the park, the decline has been greater than expected," NZ Experience said.
It was considered important to invest in a new attraction about every three years and such an investment was due to be made during the 2008 calendar year.
Planning was done but the company received an indication that the land on which the new thrill ride was to be located may be acquired under the Public Works Act.
Work was now under way to enable an alternative new attraction to be in place for the 2009/10 summer, the company said.
NZ Experience also said it would generally benefit from increased domestic tourism in the current economic environment.
But given the economic uncertainty the domestic spend the park would normally have attracted in adverse times had also reduced in the 2008/09 summer.
It was now forecasting a net profit for the full year to the end of June of $900,000 to $1 million, down from a target figure of $1.1m advised previously.
- NZPA
