In the light of the closure of the dinosaur theme park at Tong Garden Centre in Yorkshire, we asked David Wilson of Hetland Garden Centre in Dumfries how their ‘Dino Park’ attraction has fared this year.

“It has had an incredible year again, with just under 30,000 visitors. This may seem strange when you look at the books, because our sales and footfall are down by 17%, but we viewed the first year as a honeymoon period. We managed to capture the imagination of the local press who got behind the Dino Park a month prior to it opening and with all the hype and free publicity, the second season was always going to be a challenge – as also was working an attraction that has no protection against the weather.

“We have also realised that as with all attractions, we need to keep adding to it on a yearly basis to keep the local community interested and to keep getting repeat visits. A tree house will be opened in an extension to the Dino Park for the start of the 2015 season and plans are being drawn for an undercover family attraction with separate catering alongside the Dino park, to open in 2017.

“Our catering is slightly down this year – about 5% – but is still 15% up on 2012. Again, we’re very pleased considering the Dino Park is 17% down. The Tea Room could have been more heavily affected than it has.

“We have maintained staffing at a high level with only customer service in mind. It has reaped the benefits in ther attraction’s customer satisfaction score, which is very noticeable on our Facebook page and Trip Advisor ratings. We have also taken great care with the exhibits, atmosphere, signage, the education aspect and, finally, fun for children and adults.

“This Christmas we will be converting the Dino mine into an ice cave for Santa and making the Dino Den into ‘Mrs Clause’s Cabin’. We will install a snow machine, remove some dinosaurs and make a different route in through a woodland of pine trees. This will mean employing an extra 13 part-time staff to run it.”