Growth plans kick in at Gulliver’s Valley

Gulliver’s Valley, the popular theme park in Rotherham, is expanding its offering to provide more comprehensive packages for school visits and residential stays.

The resort, which opened in 2020 and has gone from strength-to-strength offering theme park day tickets, short stay accommodation breaks and a host of family events and activities, is now looking to build on this success and diversify into other areas of business.

As part of Gulliver’s development plans, the Gulliver’s Valley site in Rotherham was selected to pilot a more educational based programme of school and young people’s group days out, educational visits, residential stays, secondary school transition and reward stays in the summer of 2022.

The popularity of this offering has seen Gulliver’s Valley enjoy an 85 percent rebooking rate for this summer and a 265 per cent increase in bookings in 2023 compared to 2022.

Off the back of this success, Gulliver’s, which this year celebrates its 45^th year in business, is now officially launching its new range of school and groups packages across all its parks in the UK. The packages include theme park rides, accommodation, food and a range of exciting activities such as bush craft, climbing wall, educational workshops, nature trails, evening entertainment and more.

Julie Dalton, managing director of Gulliver’s Theme Park Resorts, said: “When we opened Gulliver’s Valley back in 2020 we always knew that was just the start of things to come. Since then, we have added more rides to the park, developed our mini farm and provided more exciting events and activities as we look to reinforce our position as a must-visit tourist destination. With this has brought more jobs and we are contributing to the local economy more and more.

“There have been challenges along with the way but as a family-company our greatest strength is our ability to adapt and change to the markets we work within. And with our new educational and residential packages that is exactly what we have done as we look to diversify and increase our presence through the services we can offer.

“We spotted a gap for providing high quality yet cost-effective options for schools, groups and parents who are looking for a range of education and learning based visits or residential stays and felt Gulliver’s Valley was the best location to bring this product to market and we are really proud of what we have put together which incorporates clear positive learning outcomes for attendees. The feedback we have had so far has been really positive and this has been backed up by the bookings we are now taking.

“So far, we’ve enjoyed visits from schools looking for transitional stays to welcome new secondary school starters in the Autumn term, revision stays, reward trips, graduation trips and Y6 residential stays. We’re thrilled to now be rolling these out at Gulliver’s Valley but also our resorts in Matlock Bath, Warrington and Milton Keynes as we look to do what we do best – deliver great learning experiences and magical moments for children and young people.”

Other initiatives in the pipeline at Gulliver’s Valley include playing a major role in Skills Street – an interactive training centre which is an immersive and innovative careers experience developed to inspire and inform children, young people, and adults from across the South Yorkshire region, as well as

Gulliver’s Theme Park Resorts, a family-owned company, is celebrating its 45^th year of business this year. The first Gulliver’s resort, Gulliver’s Kingdom in Matlock Bath, opened in 1978, followed by Gulliver’s World in Warrington in 1989 and Gulliver’s Land in Milton Keynes in 1999.

Check out https://groups.gulliversfun.co.uk/ for more information.