Grant Hensman: Director of Skyline Enterprises on surpassing 100 million rides

A major milestone for one of our most iconic tourist attractions. 

The Skyline Luge has surpassed 100 million rides across its eight tracks around the world – including the ones in Queenstown and Rotorua. 

The company is also looking to continue their expansion around the world, with a brand new gondola and luge set to open in Swansea, Wales.  

Director of Skyline Enterprises, Grant Hensman told Mike Hosking one of the successes of the luge is the repeat business. 

He says they have people who have been coming back for the full 40 years they’ve been operating in Rotorua – started as kids and are now bringing their own kids. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Normally when it comes to thrills and tourism, of course
aj Hackett gets a lot of headlines. But what about Skyline.
They they're behind the luge ride. Of course you've been
done the Lousi in Queenstown, done the Lousion Road a well,
the Skyline Louge has just sur passed one hundred million rides.
They've got eight tracks around the world. They're about to
open another one in Swansea and Wales. Grant Hensman as
the director of Skyline Enterprises and as with us, Grant,

(00:21):
very good morning to you, Good morning one hundred million.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Who would have thought, eh, yeah, it's a big number,
isn't it?

Speaker 1 (00:28):
I reckon? Do they all perform basically the same no
matter where you put them in the world. The same
sortish number of people come and pay the same sort
of amount of money a year.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
It's relatively the same ticket price, which fates back to
what is affordable in the market. They don't all do
the same numbers, some types for far more numbers than others.
Two of the sites are seasonal, they're only operator in
the summer. In Canada.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, you've got a couple in Kennedy. You got the
rest in Asia. What brought the whales thing on? Because
you're not in that part of the world.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, we're actively looking for expansion. We don't limit ourselves
to any particular jurisdictions. There are some jurisdictions that we're
probably more reluctant to go for for a raft of reasons.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
What do you Is it simply a build that and
you will come thing, find a slope, put a track
and they will come? Or is it more complicated than that?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, only if it was that simple, right, No. We
look for sites that already have other activities around them.
They need to have a number of criteria, which is
the right amount of elevation, the right population, the right
regulous ory environment, and the business still has to work

(01:53):
for the company.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Is it tourism or are locals? If I'm in Rotu,
do I lose on a regular basis because I live there? On?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Not? Here's a lot doue. One of the successes of
the lush is the red teak business. We have people
who have been coming back all the four forty years
we've been going the road to really parted as kids
and there they're bringing their grand kids.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Have the carts changed dramatically.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
No, No, the principle is exactly the same. They have
got a lot more robust. I mean, in the early
days we had real troubles cut bodies, folding conveyors not
working mechanically. They failed. Maintenance was a killer, and our
engineer of the day took what was the early systems

(02:40):
and involved it into the robust product that you see today.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
It's interesting, do you worry about the danger side of
the equation in a world of we worry about everything.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
No. No. Over the years we've had a real focus
on improving the safety and reducing the access, which continues
to be one of their main focuses today or the
main focus and period. The incident rate's gone down in
the order of three to four thousand per se.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Jeez, good on you. Well, congratulations Grant. I gotta be honest,
I didn't realize they were as big as they are.
I mean I've been to rot and have been to Queenstown,
but they are in various parts of the world, as
I say, in Asia and up into they're in Singapore,
there's and Toza, so you've probably been on that one
up into Canada as well, and now opening in Whales
one hundred million rights started in the sixties nineteen sixty

(03:32):
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