Wonderla upbeat on non-ticket revenues, plans IT initiatives

Wonderla Holidays Ltd's non- ticket business is growing fast and expected to contribute as much as 40 per cent to its total revenues in the next 4-5 years, said a top company official.
This business includes food and beverage, resort, ride photos and souvenir, the amusement park operator's Managing Director Arun K Chittilappilly told PTI.
Non-ticket revenues of the company, which owns and operates amusement parks in Kochi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, currently contributes 25 per cent of its topline, he said.
The company, Chittilappilly said, has just completed acquisition of 60 acres of land in Chennai, where it plans to begin construction of a park early next financial year.

The Rs 350-crore plus park is slated to be operational in 2019-2020.
Wonderla is working on rolling out information technology initiatives, including introduction of RFID bands, to enhance customer experience, he said.

After the Chennai park, Wonderla would "concentrate" on the Western region and is currently exploring options on setting up facilities in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune and Goa, he said.
Wonderla does not have overseas plans, Chittilappilly said, noting that India is still a largely untapped market.
"GST is bad for us because the taxes are at the highest bracket of 28 per cent. In fact, we had to hike the prices by 18 per cent this year because of GST. And because of that we have lost 4-5 per cent footfalls," he said.

Demonetisation did not have much of an impact on the company, Chittilappilly added.