Village Scooby do do ...
THE Gold Coast’s biggest theme park operator is carrying on from its $30 million HyperCoaster investment with a cutting-edge upgrade to another popular ride and a new Paradise Country attraction.
Village Roadshow Theme Parks plans to Scooby-Doobydo-do-do plenty more by the end of the year.
The Bulletin can reveal its plans include a $1 million overhaul of its popular ScoobyDoo Coaster.
The ride will be renamed the Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster, Next Generation and feature the latest thematics, projection imaging and 3D graphics.
On top of that, the Paradise Country park will bring to life popular kids TV show Shaun the Sheep, also scheduled for later this year.
Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa said what made the Scooby-Doo ride so popular was its thematics and they were doing “a complete thematic overhaul”.
“I don’t want to give away too much because it’s a surprise but we have been working very hard with Warner Bros in the US and this is going to be next generation stuff,’’ he said. “I don’t think anyone will be able to experience what we are about to give to the market.”
Village Roadshow will relaunch the Scooby-Doo ride near the end of this year with more details.
The addition of Shaun the Sheep to Paradise Country is to start in September. Mr Randhawa said it was a multimillion dollar investment.
“After 12 years of some of the most successful shows in Australia we are revolutionising that facility,” he said.
The new investment comes on the back of last night’s launch of the first Topgolf site in Australia next to Village Roadshow’s Movie World park at Oxenford.
“Village Roadshow Theme Parks continues to have an ongoing commitment to capital investment in attractions on the Gold Coast and we are always looking at new ideas and opportunities to support our theme parks but also provide complimentary experiences,’’ Mr Randhawa said.
“We want to ensure the Gold Coast is a one-stop destination for travellers and by offering more attractions and experiences, will only further enhance the city’s reputation.”
Asked if he shared fears of tourism bosses about M1 gridlock deterring visits, Mr Randhawa said: “We agree traffic management is an issue with major arterial roads becoming heavily congested. We would love to see the Government put their efforts and budgets towards creating a long-term traffic management and public transport infrastructures to ease these problems.’’