ShareThisThe global recession is forcing even Santa Claus to cut back.
Santapark Ltd. in Rovaniemi, Finland, which is billed as Santa's hometown, has seen a 12-percent drop in visitors and slumping profits because of the economic slowdown. The situation is so dire the Finnish government, which owned 35 percent of the park, has brought in new owners to overhaul the operation.
There will "definitely be a very tight handling of expenses," said Ilkka Lankinen, who bought the government's stake Tuesday and now owns 56 percent of Santapark. "The government was more concerned about the future and they wanted to have professional Christmas people to run it."
Santa Claus is big business in Rovaniemi, a city of about 60,000 located just outside the Arctic Circle. More than 280,000 tourists arrive every Christmas season to visit various Santa-related enterprises. There's a Santa Claus Hotel, Rudolf Hotel and the city has even trademarked its airport as the "Official Airport of Santa Claus." The city is also home to Santa's office, located in the Santa Claus Village, and Lankinen owns Joulukka, another area theme park where visitors can learn about "Santa's hidden Command Center."
Santa isn't alone in struggling to attract visitors. Theme parks everywhere, from Six Flags to Disney World and Universal Studios, are cutting costs, laying off staff and offering steep discounts in a bid to combat falling attendance.
Destination parks "have been hit harder and earlier this year than they ever have," said Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services Inc., a Cincinnati-based consulting company. "It's due to the economic turndown, it's due to the airline turndown and to people just not making commitments to go to the parks as early as they once did."
Visitors to Walt Disney Co.'s parks fell 5 per cent year over year in the quarter ended Dec. 27, 2008, and the operating profit dropped 24 per cent to $382 million. To help stem the tide, Disney has cut prices on some ticket and hotel packages by $1,320. And yet, the company could see "further declines in attendance (next year) as the promotion benefit wears off," Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Wienkes said in a report in which he downgraded Disney's stock.
Six Flags Inc., which operates 20 amusement parks in the United States, Canada and Mexico, said recently that it might have to file for bankruptcy protection because it is struggling to meet a $318 million debt payment. Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure in Florida have closed some exhibits, shortened hours of operation and laid off workers.
Speigel said regional theme parks likely will do better this year than destination parks such as Disney World as people opt to stay close to home. He expects the number of visitors to regional parks to fall by nearly 5 percent in 2009 while attendance at large parks will drop by up to 8 percent.
Santapark, which features an elf school, elf performances and Santa's official workshop, gets about 60,000 visitors annually. Reservations are holding steady at last year's pace, but Lankinen added that, "we can't really say 100 percent it's going to go well."
Lankinen hasn't resorted to layoffs or pay cuts just yet. "No, no. No worries about elf unemployment," he said.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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