Eastgate shopping centre Destination Golf is opened

Destination Golf, based on the third floor of Eastgate, is a dinosaur themed ‘immersive’ mini-golfing centre, with themed laser-filled rooms, aeroplanes and a 12ft-animatronic dinosaur controlled by a member of staff.

The business celebrated its first day on Friday to success from families and curious passers-by intrigued by the promise of mini-golf and dinosaurs.

The dinosaur decorations around the course (Image: Luke Tyler)

Co-owner, Luke Tyler, from Brighton, said: “We had our 12ft dinosaur downstairs which draws in the crowds, we had a lot of people going around the golf, its immersive and it has a story.

“We’ve made it family oriented, and we had a lot of families creating teddies, we make people dress up in lab coats and turn them into palaeontologists to make these dinosaur teddies.

“Now we have seen the centre and the clientele, we feel it could be something to benefit the local community and we are looking at adding more, it was a quick build, we had twelve weeks to build it between three men and we built it all ourselves, we come from two families and we aren’t massive businessmen but t seems to have paid off and we have new and innovative ideas.”

The new attraction sparked excitement when it was first announced in October and more than 50 people attended on Friday as it opened for the first time.

The centre marked a major investment in the Eastgate Shopping Centre after years of shop closures.

The whole attraction aims to offer something different in the centre for children (Image: Luke Tyler)

Luke added: “Kids love the 12ft dino, we play as well, we had an elderly lady with her back to it and I went to her and tried to take her bag, to be a bit naughty and play around.

“We have a phase two and a phase three away from the attraction, but all are going to be suited for children mainly, from what I have seen you have a lot of school children causing nuisance and there are always police there so we are trying to make the centre more adventurous, there isn’t much for kids so lets get some more stuff her and other attractions.

“Fifty people came through the doors, maybe 75, we want to soft launch it and we have opened three days before Christmas, people are doing shopping, so we haven’t expected much but its given us a chance to see what works”