Plans to add extra features to Scarborough's Alpamare Waterpark could go ahead under it's new operator.
Flamingo Land plan to reopen the water park in July having signed a 12 month deal with North Yorkshire Council to run the site.
Owner - Gordon Gibb - says that in the longer term he would like to add more facilities to Alpamare.
As well as adding a lift to help slide users get their inflatables to to the top of the rides Mr Gibb says Flamingo Land will be looking for opportunities to improve and expand the water park.
The Chief Exec says they are exploring ways to improve the facilities.
Gordon Gibb, said he had personal reasons for wanting to take on the water park, but he understood a lot of work was needed to tackle the high operational costs, such as energy, that contributed to the previous operator going into administration.
Among the first changes would be to make the plant room more efficient, he said, adding: “It’s going to be evolution not revolution to begin with.”
Mr Gibb said:
“I was brought up in Scarborough and saw the resort when it was at its best and have seen its general decline over the years, so being abe to get one of its key tourist assets operational again is really gratifying on a personal level.
“Hopefully it will be commercially successful as well and we will get control of the operational costs and make it a year-round business rather than just seasonal and then we can start to offer people careers and not just seasonal jobs.
“We know a bit about the history, but we are trying to turn a fresh page as much as we can. A lot of business models fail because they are too ambitious at the onset.
“Hopefully with our years of experience we are a lot more practical and prudent than that and having the mothership of Flamingo Land as a support network in the background will put us in a pretty good place to give us the best chance of opening in time for summer and surviving on a year-round basis hopefully after that.”
When asked about what number of visitors the water park needed to attract to make it viable, Mr Gibb said he would be putting a software system into operation to reveal how many customers had left the site before the end of their session to enable them to sell additional tickets.
Other plans under consideration include would discounts for local residents, putting on shuttle buses from Flamingo Land and creating holiday accommodation at the water park.
He said:
“With our skill set that we already have within the leisure industry we feel quite well placed to get the water park operational by the end of July.
“A lot of our staff live in Scarborough and there will be some additional career enhancement opportunities for our team leaders at Flamingo Land.”
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