(Bloomberg) -- The chief executive officer of Merlin Entertainments Ltd., which runs UK tourist attractions such as Madame Tussauds and Legoland, said it is becoming increasingly difficult to make big investments in the country.
An uncompetitive tax environment means the “tourist dollars seem to be moving elsewhere,” Scott O’Neil said in an interview, following resistance from the government to bring back a tax cut for visitors to the UK.
A recently-launched roller-coaster at its Alton Towers theme park and a Woodland Village attraction opening this spring at Legoland in Windsor were decisions made before O’Neil joined in November 2022. But he added: “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to place those bets in the UK.”
Merlin has more than 7,500 staff in the UK and has more than 30 attractions including the London Eye and Chessington World of Adventures.
The company, which was taken private by Blackstone Inc., KIRKBI A/S and CPPIB in 2019, reported Monday that revenue rose 8% to £2.1 billion ($2.6 billion) in 2023, after it welcomed 62.1 million visitors.
The government should support domestic business as well as working to attract new global firms, O’Neil said. It comes after Universal Studios won the support of the government for a plan to open a new attraction in Bedford, north of London.
“Let’s just make sure that we’re taking care of our own,” said O’Neil. “If there are specific opportunities to speed up the planning process, let’s speed it up for everybody.”
O’Neil welcomed comments last week by Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves that the Labour Party plans to work more closely with business.
“We want to make sure this is the greatest place in the world to invest our pounds,” he said. “We want to be here. But some things have to move for that to happen.
“Because of the way we allocate capital, the bets we will make over the next five, six, seven years will depend on that partnership that Rachel Reeves is talking about.”
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