The roller coasters abroad may be slowing down with aging crowds, but in India, the queues are only getting longer. That’s what gives Wonderla Holidays Managing Director Arun Chittilappilly reason to be upbeat about the future of fun.
His next big ride: a Rs 600-crore amusement park in Chennai, with over half the investment going into new attractions. Chittilappilly is also banking on India’s rising thrill-seeking culture to power the company’s next phase of expansion.
“We want to go to other large cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata - all Tier I markets are on our radar,” he told Moneycontrol. “We’ll announce something soon once we have confirmation. We’re also exploring cities like Goa, Indore, and a few other smaller markets. Now is a good time to expand.”
India's demographic dividend
While India’s amusement park industry is still in its early stages, Chittilappilly believes it holds far greater growth potential than many global peers.
“Many international parks are seeing declining or aging populations,” he said. “That’s not a problem in India - here, the crowd is young, aspirational, and eager for new experiences.”
"It's a high capital expenditure (capex), an unforgiving business with a lot of constraints like long gestation periods, high land acquisition cost. That's why many brands have come and gone. But there's a lot of scope because India is a large market and we have very few amusement parks," he said.
He also pointed to increasing spends on out of home entertainment, adding that the spends especially for food in smaller cities is not less than the spends recorded in metros.
"The Bhubaneswar park shows that people are willing to spend as much as visitors are spending in the Bengaluru park. The food and retail spend in Tier II cities is as much as what people spend in Hyderabad or Bengaluru."
And people are spending to have a good plate of Biryani at the amusement parks. For Wonderla, 40 to 50 percent of its sales is Biryani. Another big draw in food is pizza.
WonderLa's expansion plans
What's more on the menu are newer rides across all parks. By FY27, expect about 6 new rides, said Chittilappilly. Another roller coaster in Bengaluru alone will cost Rs 25-30 crore. "We typically spend about 10% of our top line on rides."
Chennaiites will also see a big roller coaster, in fact an inverted ride, first in India which costs Rs 60-70 crore. "The park is inspired a lot by Tamil culture and architecture. Chennai is a big market for us, especially in the south," the MD said.
Along with the Chennai park, Wonderla is also counting on its new offering Isle with rooms overlooking a lagoon running across the water themed resort. The resort currently contributes 4 to 5% to the company's overall revenues. "If we are able to replicate this in other cities, it can yield more," Chittilappilly said.
With strong occupancies ranging between 60% to 70% and being sold out every weekend, the 39-room property will record higher pricing for the winter holidays.
"We are heading to the New Year, Christmas holidays so we will have more premium pricing. We have actually revised pricing for Isle twice or three times since we opened because we are seeing so much demand. We expect the holiday season to be also sold out. So, pricing would be closer to Rs 15,000 and 20,000 from under Rs 10,000 when it was launched," Chittilappilly said.
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