Maybe I'm alone in this thinking, but I don't quite understand what Universal is thinking as far as its lack of promotion for this expansion. I mean I understand not promoting it before their busy season last Summer, but I don't understand why they have remained largely silent for so long now. They have only mentioned it officially in the press twice, I believe, and only released one largely abstract piece of concept art for the new land. I was especially surprised to see how little they mentioned it at the event on December 12th. On the video I saw the Diagon Alley part was only about a minute and a half long and they didn't even mention the headline new attraction, Gringotts, unless there was a part to the presentation I missed.
I know about it largely because I frequent theme park websites (and, living locally, I'll hear about it on the news occasionally) but how about everyone else? I've never seen a national commercial advertizing it yet, although perhaps there are international ads, I don't know. Now I'm sure theme park aficionados and Potter fans are already in the know but what about the general public, Universal's bread and butter? I've mentioned things to my friends, family, and other people in passing who have no idea what's going on right down the road. If that's the case how about people in middle America, Europe, Brazil, Asia, and so on? While I'm sure people who go to travel agents looking to vacation at a Florida theme park get all types of info, how about the people who aren't planning on going but might if they only knew? Once they finally do find out about it it may already be too late for people to book a trip, or they may have already made other plans for their holiday. Unless that is what Universal wants? To prevent over crowding issues again??? That's probably a stretch though. I really can't see a theme park purposely attempting to keep attendance down.
It just seems like, to me at least, Universal is over compensating for the advertising errors of the last Potter expansion. I know the new site goes online, finally, in January (hopefully with a lot more official details and art/pics) but it just seems like its awfully late to promote something that opens six months later. I don't know though maybe I'm completely off here. Perhaps Universal will turn the hype machine on full blast and dazzle the GP out of their little minds in the months to come. Either way I'm sure attendance will be HUGE at grand opening from the park fans and Potter fanboys alone. This is just an observation...
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