Amusement park chain Wonderla Holidays, plans to develop resorts across key cities such as Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi with plans to increase the share of non-park revenues to 50% over the next few years.
“If you see, world over, large amusement parks have resorts attached to them. We have done it in Bengaluru and now we want to do it in other cities as well,” Arun Chittilappilly, executive chairman and MD of Wonderla Holidays, told FE.
The Bengaluru-headquartered firm on Tuesday announced the launch of Wonderla Chennai, its fifth and most ambitious project with an investment of Rs 611 crore. The 64-acre theme park, located along Chennai’s coastal Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR), will be inaugurated on December 1 and open to the public from the next day.
“We are planning to come up with a resort in Chennai as well because it is located on the scenic OMR,” he said.
Apart from Chennai, Wonderla currently operates amusement parks in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi and Bhubaneswar, with a collective footfall of 1.42 million in the first half of the current fiscal. The company has a total of 300 acres of land adjacent to its existing parks for resort development.
“We are planning to add resorts in Hyderabad and Kochi, followed by Chennai,” Chittilappilly said. In May, Wonderla commenced its resort operations in Bengaluru under the brand name “Isle by Wonderla”.
“Q2, which is typically a weak quarter, we achieved 68–70% occupancy in our two resorts in Bengaluru,” Chittilappilly said, adding that integrating resort infrastructure with amusement parks is a global trend.
“The global standard is to have a 50-50 mix between ticketing and non-ticketing revenues. We will also get there in a few years,” he said.
He added that the revenue mix can be achieved once the firm has more resorts in each location and reaches 150–200 keys per location. Wonderla counts amusement park income under ticketing revenues, while income from resorts, food and beverage sales, and merchandise falls under non-ticketing.
The listed entity reported Rs 267.58 crore in revenues for H1FY26, with a 70-30 split between ticketing and non-ticketing.
Chittilappilly also said the company is in talks with various state governments, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Goa, to explore setting up large theme parks in some of these locations. “Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad are some of the cities we are planning to enter,” he said.
On the GST impact, he said that while the amusement park business has not received any GST rebate, the expectation is that the tax cut will lead to higher discretionary spending, including for amusement parks. Shares of Wonderla Holidays jumped 5% to close at Rs 561 on the NSE.
