Rising living costs barring people from theme parks

Shamsul Haque, a private company official, took his wife and two daughters to the Nandan Park in Savar's Nabinagar last Saturday to enjoy a day with family at the amusement park, but he could feel a limiting impact on their regular visiting experience.

At other times, the family would spend the whole day in the park and enjoy all the rides, but this time they settled on only two rides – those that came free with the entry ticket.

"It took Tk1,200 to purchase four tickets, and I could not afford to spend extra money on more rides – although the kids would love it," Shamsul told The Business Standard.

"Previously, my earnings would be sufficient to comfortably run the family. Now, even without any extra expenditure, we are struggling," he said and added that the family did not go to their village in Faridpur during Eid and so took them out somewhere to entertain them.

"With the trend of soaring prices of all commodities, there is basically no money to spend on hobbies or entertainment," observed Shamsul.

The Covid-19 pandemic, followed by the shocks of the Russia-Ukraine war, forced many like Shamsul to cut down spending on recreation, causing a blow to the amusement parks, which reopened late last year after being closed for more than two years due to pandemic.

Humayun Sheikh, a fourth grade government employee, has already stopped spending for entertainment like a lot of others struggling to cope with the inflation.

Last Friday, he took his family to Ramna Park instead of visiting any amusement parks.

"My four-year-old daughter wants to go out all the time and she likes to take rides at theme parks, but now it is very difficult for a fourth-class employee like me to visit amusement parks when I am struggling to put food on the table," he told The Business Standard.

"The entire salary I get goes for the house rent. My wife earns a little through sewing and our family of three is surviving on it somehow," he added.

Most of the theme parks got a good response from the visitors this Eid-ul-Fitr, but the rise in commodity prices over the past month has dealt another blow to the theme park business.

Arshed Nur, general manager of Nandan Park told The Business Standard that their business has declined by about 60% compared to normal times.

"Now some 200 people come to our park every day, whereas on an average 350 people used to visit daily in pre-pandemic years," he said.

Arshed Nur said despite offering great deals, like all rides with a packaged price of Tk745, the number of visitors at the park is not growing, rather decreasing day by day.

He added that with the earnings from the visitors he somehow manages to pay the salary and cover operational expenses.

Tushar Bin Yunus, CEO of Nandan Park Limited and Treasurer of the Bangladesh Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (BAAPA), said, "We are not getting as many visitors as we expected."

Md Sarwoar Osman, executive (sales & marketing) at Sea Pearl Water Park, Cox's Bazar, said, "Visitor numbers have almost halved. Even before Ramadan, an average of 500 visitors used to come every day, now it is 200-300 people a day."

There are 63 staff members working in different sectors in this park and it will be difficult for the owners to get profit at the end of the month after paying their salaries. However, the income was good last month thanks to Eid.

Md Abdullah of The Dream World Park & Resorts at Bhaluka, Mymensingh, said, "In the current situation, when prices of everything are increasing, people are spending carefully. They are showing less interest in recreation.

Asked if ticket prices for the park rides have been increased, he said, "We are still thinking about it. However, the number of visitors are already low and if we do increase prices, chances are the impacts will be more negative."   

Mahfuzur Rahman, head of media and pro of The Concord Group, said, "Visitors did not increase at our Fantasy Kingdom and Water Kingdom. It is noticeable now that visitors are not taking as many rides like before."

Md Liton Hossain Sikder, general manager (operations) of Matador Amusement Park at Dhaka's West Rosulpur said the park got a good response after its inauguration in 2019 but then the pandemic hit, causing big losses to its business.

"Number of visitors during the Eid holidays hovered around 1,000, which has dropped to 300 at the moment," he said.

Liton Hossain said that the park is far from making profits and struggling to earn the monthly operational expenditures including staffers' salaries and maintenance cost of nearly Tk15 lakh. 

He said that most visitors are using one or two rides.

"Earlier, water rides were also crowded, and not so much," he added.

The General Secretary of Bangladesh Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions (BAAPA) Prabir Kumar Saha said that at present the number of visitors in amusement parks is very low.

"There are more than 300 small and large amusement parks across the country. Of these, at least 100 are in the vicinity of Gazipur. But the way this sector is growing, we are not getting cooperation from the government," he said.

"Hopefully, our business will be better during the Eid al-Adha holidays, but we are worried that people will be less inclined towards entertainment due to the economic situation in the country and rising commodity prices," added Prabir Kumar.

In 2002, Concord Group made a giant leap forward by setting up the country's biggest theme park named Fantasy Kingdom in Savar. It brought about a change in the concept of parks with its new park, featuring entertainment for people of all ages. 

Many entrepreneurs followed in Rahman's footsteps and set up private amusement parks.

The amusement park industry has been getting bigger with each passing year - there are now around 300 parks across the country, of which, 200 are private ones.

The major parks include Nandan Park, Dream Holiday Park, Foy's Lake, Dream Square, Swapnopuri, Sea Pearl Water Park, Matador Amusement Park and others.

BAAPA said the sector witnessed Tk12,000 crore in investments over the last two decades, with more than 5 lakh people involved in it. Amusement parks cater for 8-10 crore visitors a year.

According to BAAPA, the amusement park industry's annual turnover stands at more than Tk5,000 crore and the sector incurred Tk10,000 in losses due to pandemic-led closures of parks.