Expect Footfall To Grow By 5-10% This Summer Season: Wonderla Holidays’ Arun K Chittilappilly

Wonderla Holidays expects a 5% to 10% increase in footfall during the summer season, aided by milder temperatures compared to last year, according to Chairman and MD Arun K Chittilappilly. The company’s Bhubaneswar Park will experience a full summer season for the first time, which is also expected to contribute to the rise in visitors, Chittilappilly said.

“Last year, we had the problem of having excessive heat and heat waves, which affected Bangalore and Cochin. This year, so far, it's not looking so terrible. So I think it should be a milder summer, and that will definitely help us. And we are expecting to grow footfalls by maybe between 5% and 10%. This is also the first year that our fourth park, which is in Bhubaneswar, will experience a full summer season,” he said in a conversation with NDTV Profit.

Wonderla currently operates amusement parks in Bengaluru, Kochi, Hyderabad, and Bhubaneswar. Chittilappilly stated that the company aims to expand to 10 cities by 2030–32 and will open its fifth park in Chennai by December 2025. He acknowledged that building amusement parks is a time-consuming process and noted the company’s gradual expansion toward the western and northern regions of India.

“We have already raised some money through a QIP (Qualified Institutional Placement), and the rest of the expansion will be funded through our internal accruals and maybe some debt going forward, but it just depends on the size and the scope of the expansion,” he said. In December 2024, the QIP successfully raised Rs 540 crore by allocating 68.35 lakh equity shares.

Concerned about competition from concerts and live events, Chittilappilly asserted that amusement parks and concerts cater to different entertainment preferences. “I think people go to concerts and amusement parks for different reasons. It is not going to affect us much. By that logic, I think even IPL should have affected footfalls at our parks, but it hasn't,” he noted.

The top executive emphasised the importance of regularly adding attractions to maintain visitor interest. “What we do as a company, methodically and periodically, is that we keep adding new attractions. For us, this year, we will be adding new attractions to all our parks, including Bhubaneswar,” he said.

Wonderla has introduced a virtual reality attraction at its Bengaluru park and new water slides in Kochi. Additionally, the Kochi park is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2025 with special programmes and events.

Shares of Wonderla Holidays closed 3.16% higher at Rs 664.20 on the NSE, while the benchmark Nifty50 closed 0.32% higher at 22,907.60.