Richard Douaihy, Park President, Six Flags Over Texas & Hurricane Harbor Arlington

“An active investment agenda is the key to success for an entertainment company like Six Flags, but profits and earnings per share are always key goals.” Park President Richard Douaihy told Invest:.

What were the milestones and achievements this past year for Six Flags in Texas?

One of the greatest achievements is that we have started to lay the foundation for a new team. In the last three years, we’ve been bolstering our foundation by establishing a team of professionals who have joined us from different segments of Six Flags, from other areas of the industry, or from related industries, like the food service sector, which comprises a huge chunk of our business. 

Attendance has steadily picked up in the last three years. In 2024, Six Flags Over Texas grew almost 100,000 attendees more than the prior year. Six Flags Over Texas and Hurricane Harbor Arlington, our water park across the I-30, together now attract 2.2 million visitors to Dallas, Fort West, and particularly to Arlington, and that number will only grow. We have for a long time been the pillar of the Arlington Entertainment District, bringing revenue benefits for the city but also having a trickle-down impact to all the neighbors around us, most importantly the hospitality industry.

What makes Arlington and North Texas an ideal location for Six Flags?

From a geographical standpoint, our location offers a driving advantage for people who live in Dallas and the east side of the metroplex, and Fort Worth and the west side of the metroplex. Also, in DFW in general, you are around an hour’s drive from most key locations, and Arlington sits perfectly in that spot. There’s also a lot of activity, investment and development happening across the whole region. 

In terms of Arlington, entertainment is just part of its DNA. Besides Six Flags Over Texas and Hurricane Harbor Arlington, we neighbor the two famous sports stadiums Globe Live Field and AT&T, and multiple reputable hotels. You also have the University of Texas at Arlington and the young students that it brings to the city. There are also plenty of school districts around us. We cater for every thrill seeker, entertainment lover, and visitor of DFW.

How do you ensure that Six Flags remains the top choice for both locals and tourists?

Like every company, we need to generate a good return on investment. We’ve been injecting more capital investment, not just on the rides side, but also on park improvements and refreshes, targeting a better experience for any guest who comes to Six Flags Over Texas or Hurricane Harbor Arlington. Across our parks, we have touched up our guest-facing buildings, not just by repainting them, but also by ensuring there will be cultural impact on that particular location. For example, in the Mexico part of the park, we have added touches that make you feel like you are really in Mexico. By adding the mercados, mural paintings, and the gazebo lights, it makes you feel like you are walking the streets of Mexico. We have seen a tick in attendance, better guest satisfaction surveys, and more in-park spending, thus our bottom line grew significantly and that only means more improvements, a happier guest, and a happy investor.

How are you exploring technological innovations?

One example is our new mobile food-order kiosks, which we added in early 2024. These are part of our goal to offer an enhanced experience using our website and our apps. We integrated anything that relates to mobile ordering. Guests can order food and beverages, and if they want to leave that location, they’ll get a notice through the app to come and pick up their order. This way, they do not need to stay in line. We have seen that our average guest, especially the younger generation, is thrilled about this because they no longer want to stand in standard lines. So, when it comes to technology, mobile food order kiosks have helped us tremendously. Our corporation is also working on a new website and app for all our parks.

What are your top priorities for the next few years?

The top priority is to work relentlessly on completing the current capital investments we have started, finish them on time, and get new experiences out ready for all our guests. This is our most important goal for the short term.

Other than that, we keep bringing improvements to the park premises and locations, enhanced live entertainment like we’ve been doing during Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park, and optimizing the business where possible as it brings leverage that we reinvest in our parks.