General manager Somporn Naksuetrong declined to reveal the exact investment figure, but said the expansion plan would require several hundred million baht.

It will double both its Ripley area from the current 3,000 square metres and the playing-machine attractions.

The four current attractions in Pattaya are the Believe-It-or-Not! museum, haunted house, infinity maze and moving theatre.

In addition, Royal Garden Entertainment has a five-year plan to expand to Phuket, said Somporn. He declined to give details or the investment figure, but said it would be significantly larger than the current Pattaya entertainment site.

While working on details of both expansions, the company is concentrating on strengthening its haunted house in Pattaya, which was opened two years ago.

It has invited US firm Sudden Impact Entertainment to train its 15 actors in the haunted house. The training will take place during the whole of next week and the company will continue to work with the actors for another year after that. The budget for the training is US$15,000 (Bt550,000). Somporn said Sudden Impact Entertainment might not be widely known to the US public, but it has contributed to many movies such as "The Scorpion King" and "The Mummy Returns". Also, the company has worked with Universal Studios in creating "scary attractions" for show in the United States.

He said if the local training proved successful, it might set up a "scare school" here, especially for those who work in haunted-house and other horror attractions.

The school will train in costume, make-up, special effects, and atmosphere creation (sound and scenes).

Royal Garden Entertainment last year posted 20-per-cent revenue growth to Bt100 million and 12-per-cent growth in term of visitors. This year, it expects the same sales growth rate.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation