How to start an amusement park in India

To start an amusement park in India, begin with the question of what the site and the audience can support, then test the numbers, shape a clear concept and plan how the park will run. Skipping any of these is how amusement parks end up with the wrong rides in the wrong place.

This guide explains the sequence and the reason for each step. It stays at the level of what each step is for. The detailed method is part of Mast Parks' professional practice and is not published here.

An amusement park is only as good as its fit with the place. A feasibility study studies the space, the location and the target audience, then determines the most suitable park or concept for the area.

Owners sometimes arrive with a ride list. A ride list is a shopping list, not a plan. The study may show that the site suits a different park than the owner imagined, or a park of a different size, or a park built in stages. Learning that early costs little.

Financial planning analyses pocket size, investment and potential returns, with the focus on return on investment (ROI). It is done before design so that the design is drawn to a plan that works financially.

Many amusement parks add income from more than tickets. Food, merchandise, events and sponsorships can all contribute, and each one needs space and planning. Counting them at the start, honestly, shows which parts of the park carry the investment.

Amusement parks range from ride-led parks to water parks, family entertainment centres and parks built around a story. The right kind depends on the site, the audience and the budget. Concept creation gives the park its idea, and theme development gives it a story, a look and mascots if the owner chooses a theme.

Mast Parks also builds parks without a theme where the client asks. A theme adds identity but it is a choice, and the study and the financial plan show whether it earns its place. For the park types Mast Parks works with, see amusement park design.

Master planning draws the park as a whole: the entrance, the zones, the routes, the queues, the rest areas and where each ride sits. Architectural designing then produces the construction drawings.

Parks that grow ride by ride tend to have crowded paths and zones that do not relate. Drawing the whole park first lets the owner build in stages without losing the plan. See theme park layout and zones.

The rides a park needs depend on who will visit. A park for young families needs a different mix from a park for teenagers, and a park beside a city needs a different mix from a park on a highway. Rides are chosen together with the owner so that the mix suits the guests the study identified.

Mast Parks does not sell rides. It helps the owner decide what to buy and from whom, so that the choice follows the plan and not the supplier.

Team hiring and training and operations planning decide who will run the park and how. Operations are planned in parallel with design, because a park designed without operations in mind is hard to run. See amusement park manpower and operations.

Marketing and branding, merchandising and content and events bring guests in and keep them coming back. A park that markets only before the opening finds that the first rush fades. A park that plans events and content through the year keeps its guests.

Three things catch new amusement park owners out. The first is how much of the park is not rides: paths, queues, toilets, food areas, parking and back-of-house space take a large share of the site. The second is how much the park depends on the people who run it, because a good ride run badly is a bad ride. The third is how long the early decisions take, because choices about site, concept and plan cannot be rushed without cost later.

Planning for these at the start does not make the park more expensive. It makes the park cheaper to run and easier to fix, because the decisions were made when changing them was still free.

A park earns most from guests who come back. Return visits come from a park that feels cared for, offers something new through the year and gives guests a reason to tell others. Events, seasonal content and merchandise tied to the park's idea all help, and each is easier when it was planned with the park and not added later.

This is why Mast Parks treats marketing, merchandising and events as part of the plan and not as a separate task after the build. See how to market a theme park and how theme parks make money.

The cost of a park depends on the project and the effort it needs: the park type, the size of the site and the services chosen. It is not a fixed number, and a figure quoted without knowing the site would mislead. Mast Parks scopes each project with the owner, so the owner pays for the work that project needs.

The most useful first step is the feasibility study and financial plan, which show what the right park costs for a given site and audience.

How long a park takes depends on the project: the size of the site, the park type and the scope of the work. Mast Parks agrees a timeline with each owner at the start, so the owner can plan funding, approvals and the opening around it.

• Choosing rides before the site and the audience are studied.
• Designing a park ride by ride rather than as a whole.
• Leaving staff training and operations to the last weeks.
• Assuming ticket sales will carry the whole investment.
• Starting marketing only after the opening.

All five are avoidable by following the steps in order.

Fun World. The park was re-themed so its amusement park, water park, aquarium and snow park sit under one theme, with new merchandising options and a dark ride. See the project.

A Mast water park in Rajasthan. An indoor water park with an integrated amusement park, designed to give guests shelter from the heat. Mast Parks handled theming, naming, master planning, architectural design, project management, operations, hiring and training. See the project.

An amusement park project. Mast Parks proposed and designed the amusement park around an existing food park factory, including master planning, architectural drawings, thematic design and attraction design with dark rides, and provided project management consultancy with on-site personnel. One amusement park project.

To begin with the feasibility question, see amusement park design or the contact page.