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EMBATTLED Gold Coast theme park, Dreamworld, has reported another major drop in visitation numbers with June figures down 30.5 per cent on the previous year and revenues declining by $4.4 million, or 35.3 per cent.
Dreamworld's parent company, Ardent Leisure (ASX: AAD) blamed the struggling June figures on inconsistent nation-wide school holidays which commenced in July rather than late June.
While the latest monthly result is poor, it is a marginal improvement from May's numbers which showed both visitation and revenue down by around 35 per cent.
In February 2017, the group saw some improvement in both visitation and revenue in its theme parks division but this ground was lost almost immediately in March 2017.
The drop in visitation and revenue was caused by the deaths of four people on the Thunder River Rapids Ride at Dreamworld ride in October 2016.
Since then, Ardent has dealt with several PR issues, most recently news that the largest shareholder in the company, Ariadne Australia, called for the removal and replacement of Ardent's directors.
Ardent also removed its CEO Deborah Thomas from the job into other roles before she left the company last month.
There have also been rumours regarding the potential sale of the theme park.
In early trading on Monday, Ardent Leisure shares were up 2.45 per cent to $2.90.
Business News Australia
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