photo: Merlin Entertainments
W
hen I speak to Merlin Entertainments’ CEO Nick Varney, he has just
LEGOLAND New York Resort opened in August 2021 with a 250-room LEGOLAND Hotel
returned from a trip to the US, where he visited
the recently opened LEGOLAND New York Resort – just one of a string of new and giant. Like everyone in the attractions industry, the group has been hit hard by the pandemic, but now it’s full steam ahead with highly ambitious global plans to grow the company, and Varney’s relief and excitement is clear. “It’s easy to say ‘we’ve opened this, we’ve opened that’,” Varney tells me, speaking from Merlin’s head office in Poole, “But
photo: Merlin Entertainments
forthcoming openings for the entertainment
it doesn’t reflect the real experience of getting each and every new site open.” “After all of the hassles you have to go through
blood, sweat and tears, because you’ve got
– the objectors, the financing, the design, the
happy families having experiences that will
countless problems – that in the case of Legoland
last in their memories for years to come.
New York included record rainfall, an overheated construction market, local objectors, and then just for kicks, a global pandemic – nothing beats the buzz of finally getting a site open. “Several years ago, I walked around a big hilly
“Nothing in the business world can beat that.”
MAJOR PLANS
The Legoland New York Resort is just one of several major new projects for Merlin.
piece of woody scrap land about an hour out
This year has also seen the opening of
of Manhattan and tried to visualise whether
Mythica, a new themed land at Legoland
there could ever be a Merlin Entertainments
Windsor, UK; the first European Legoland
business on that site. Last week, I sat looking
Water Park in Gardaland, Italy; and the
out of my hotel bedroom, hearing kids
Legoland Discovery Centre in Hong Kong.
squealing with happiness, watching lines of excited people heading to the entry gate. “You can finally see it was worth all that
November is set to see the launch of Madame Tussauds Dubai, and openings planned for next year include Madame Tussauds Budapest
attractionsmanagement.com ISSUE 3 2021
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