Attendance and revenue at Weeki Wachee Springs has fallen, but its managers believe better marketing is the answer.
By ROBERT KING
Published September 16, 2003
BROOKSVILLE - Weeki Wachee Springs lost money last year and its attendance has dropped 8 percent since 2000, but a new business plan says the park can return to its glory days with better marketing of its mermaids and the "Real Florida" experience.
The plan was delivered Monday to the Southwest Florida Water Management District, whose governing board convenes Sept. 23 to decide Weeki Wachee's fate.
Swiftmud, as the water district is known, bought the land on which the park sits two years ago and has been after Weeki Wachee to make repairs. Its board nearly moved to terminate Weeki Wachee's lease last month but decided to give the park - which was recently donated to the city of Weeki Wachee - until Monday to deliver a survival plan.
That plan, put together by Weeki Wachee's management team with help from a group of local retired executives, says the park can be repaired for $271,000. Earlier this year, a Swiftmud consultant estimated the park needed nearly $1-million in repairs.
The plan says Weeki Wachee, which is open all year, would close for two weeks in January to take care of Swiftmud's greatest concern - closure of the park's aging sewer plant. Swiftmud officials fear the old plant could fail and contaminate the Weeki Wachee River. They want the park to tie into Hernando County's sewer system.
But the Weeki Wachee plan says that urgent needs have already been addressed, including the demolition of several park structures that were abandoned or deemed unsafe.
In a sense, the plan was most remarkable for what it revealed about the business aspects of the 56-year-old tourist attraction. Recently, the city of Weeki Wachee denied a request from the St. Petersburg Times to provide financial and attendance information about the park. And the Times filed a lawsuit seeking the records.
Part of the information denied to the newspaper was contained in the plan delivered to Swiftmud.
The plan showed Weeki Wachee had 175,034 visitors in 2002 - a 2 percent increase over the previous year but well below a recent peak of 191,295 visitors in 2000.
It says that Weeki Wachee took in $2.26-million in 2002. Still, that was $87,764 below the park's total expenses for year. Yet, in a quirk that no one from Weeki Wachee was available to explain Monday, the month-to-month figures on the park show a net loss of $180,000 in 2002.
Robyn Anderson, the mayor of Weeki Wachee and the attraction's general manager, did not return calls Monday. Weeki Wachee attorney Joe Mason could not explain the disparate numbers. Either way, the park had tough year financially in 2002, the plan shows.
It ran in the red for seven months of the year. The lean times came during the low attendance months in the winter. Prosperous times returned from March to August, when the Buccaneer Bay water park was open and students were out of school.
Still, the plan says Weeki Wachee finished last month with $200,000 on hand. It forecasts a positive cash flow throughout 2004.
Because it is now controlled by the city, the park will no longer have the 3 percent management fee that it had been paying to the private ownership group who held the park until the end of July. That fee amounted to more than $66,000 last year, the plan said.
That sort of financial wiggle room is what Weeki Wachee's backers say will make all the difference in turning the park around.
"Weeki Wachee has survived despite modest promotional efforts and a lessee unwilling to reinvest profits," the report said. "In spite of the adverse conditions, the attraction has maintained a loyal customer base."
The plan says that marketing efforts will no longer be so constrained.
It intends to form new promotional partnerships with local restaurant chains, hold special events such as Earth Day festivals, put Weeki Wachee brochures in motels and do more to promote the head of the Weeki Wachee spring as a destination for divers. It will also rebuild the River Side Theater that formerly housed its "Pets in Paradise" show.
Weeki Wachee delivered 25 copies of its report - a three-ring binder roughly an inch thick - to Swiftmud on Monday. Swiftmud staffers were reviewing it and had no immediate comment, said the agency's spokesman, Michael Molligan.
Swiftmud's governing board convenes next Tuesday at 1 p.m.
- Staff writer Robert King covers Spring Hill and can be reached at 848-1432. Send e-mail to rking@sptimes.com
