Universal ‘significant’ for UK theme park industry says award organiser

Organisers of the UK Theme Park Awards have described the proposed Universal resort as “significant for the entire industry”.

The US firm submitted plans to the government to get permission to build a theme park at Kempston Hardwick, near Bedford, which is expected to attract 8.5 million visitors annually.

Laurence Roots, founder of the awards ceremony held at Wicksteed Park in Northamptonshire, said the project would be “unlike anything else that we have got here at the moment.”

He added: “There will be people from across Europe, in fact the world, that will travel to the UK to visit that Universal park and they won’t just go to the Universal resort.”

He added: “They will then also visit other theme parks and other major attractions in the country. So it gives the entire industry a significant lift.”

Also at the event was Lydia Downey from Bewilderwood, an adventure resort in Norwich. She said she was not worried about the proposed park as it could be “good for tourism in general”.

“I think it’s quite an exciting thing to come to the UK. I think there’s so much variety in our theme parks in the UK that hopefully it shouldn’t have too much of an impact,” she added.

One of the closest parks geographically is Gulliver’s Land in Milton Keynes.

Hospitality manager Darren Hoy said they were not concerned about the Universal project.

He said: “Universal is Universal. It’s a big, ginormous, kind of massive company. They’ll do what they do, and they’ll do it absolutely fantastic

“We are the family-run business that offers value to the family… I think they’re going to get a lot of people coming from Europe and stuff. So completely different. I don’t think there’s any worries at all.”

Suffolk’s Pleasurewood Hills sales manager Andy Fuller described the proposed park as “a completely different ball game altogether”.

However, he noted that there were already lots of competitors across the country, and Universal is just increasing the variety available.

He said: “Of course, we have theme parks up and down the country… they’re a different kind of theme park to us as well as other competitors. So we all sit in our place in the market.”