Merlin Musings

Dear Nieces and Nephews:

According to an article in today's THR, everyone who owns a business in Orange County is just giddy with excitement because of the anticipated Legoland opening in ”650 days”. Phil Royle of Merlin Entertainments, addressed a crowd of local business owners at “Awesome Awareness Day” (we are not joking, that is what they called it). He spoke of the opportunities for local businesses IF they meet Legoland’s requirements.

“We don’t want to run out of French fries because of supply chain problems,” Royle said

(the implication being that smaller businesses may not meet their requirements.)

Do you remember a while back, Auntie went into lecture mode and discussed reading news and press releases with a bit of skepticism?

 Well, use that skill judiciously when reading about Legoland.

Another key factor will be international visitors. Legoland New York is expected to draw as many as 2.5 million visitors a year, and Royle said about 30 percent of those, or about 750,000, will be from overseas. They won’t want to mess with currency exchange, Royle said, so it’s vital that businesses accept debit cards.

“The Hudson Valley needs to get ready for that,” Royle said. 

http://www.recordonline.com/news/20180628/legoland-opportunities-abound-for-local-businesses 

While we do know what a debit card is and use debit cards here in Orange County,  the point, Phil, is that we are NOT ready for that volume. How many local businesses will be ready to serve the needs of a venue/attraction/theme park that will attract 2.5 million people a year? In a County of 275,000 people??? Not many. Hence our suspicion that most of your contractors will NOT be local.

But why would there be so many visitors from overseas? Would they be coming from Germany, Denmark, or England? Japan, Malaysia or Dubai? No, there are Legoland parks in each of those countries. https://www.legoland.com/ 

Legolands in Europe, Asia, North America, none in South America, Africa and Australia. (Antarctica does not count unless you want to attract penguins.) South America could be a target audience for a Legoland NY marketing campaign, but why would they travel to NY when there is a Legoland in Florida and California? Australia is not a viable market since they could go to Japan which is closer, for their Legoland visit. Those in Africa  have Europe or Dubai as much closer options.

Maybe Phil means that he can get special visa’s for those in the President’s “travel ban” countries.

Phil speaks of the targeted age range for Legoland as 2-12 years of age.

Can you picture today’s 12 year-olds actually being interested in the “treasure chest” in the hotel rooms? Or a 12 year-old of today, more sophisticated than a 12 year-old from previous generations, playing with Lego bricks and actually believing the Lego characters to be real? Is that why we see so many 12 year-olds in the Legoland Welcome Centre? We think not. Just try dragging your 12 year old child or grandchild to a Legoland and see what happens.

Even though Legoland will have it’s own hotel, Phil emphasized the opportunities for the local hotels.

“Easy money,” a slide in Royle’s PowerPoint presentation said. “Sit back and watch the bookings roll in.”

Whenever someone tells you it’s “Easy Money” run, don’t walk, to the nearest exit.

  

Just who is running this County Dog and Pony Show? Steve or Phil?  

PS Don’t forget to visit the Legoland Promotional Booth at Goshen's Great American Weekend  this weekend. Maybe you will get to see Phil talk out of both sides of his mouth. Maybe he will explain how Legoland kept their environmental promise and “improved” the Otterkill Creek or explain how Legoland will have fireworks displays periodically at 8pm. 8PM, in the summer.