Volume 3, No. 16. August 22,2003
Hot
times
Cemetery workers
in Italy were being called back early from vacation to handle the increased
workload. France put its own death toll at more than 10,000. Forest fires raged
through Spain and Portugal. Nuclear power plants in Germany shut down because
the rivers are too warm to cool their fuel rods. In England, which has recorded
temperatures since the 1870s, the thermometer hit 38.1 Celsius in the town of
Gravesend. That is 100.58 Fahrenheit, the first time ever that Great Britain
has hit the 100-degree mark.
Europe was in the
grip of a record-breaking, tragic-proportioned heat wave through last weekend,
and the amusement industry, already contending with a sluggish economy, suffered
along with the rest of the continent. “It was simply too hot to spend time
at, or even drive to, parks,” said Alex Gourevitch, Vice President, Corporate
Communications of Grévin & Cie, the French company that owns Parc
Asterix and 10 other theme parks, waterparks and aquariums in France, Germany,
Switzerland and The Netherlands. “Indoor facilities fared even worse. Excess
heat is not good for business.”
Holiday Park in
Hassloch, Germany, is set in the middle of a forest, which has helped keep that
property cooler than most. “Thousands of trees offer a natural sun roof
for our visitors,” said Rudi Mallasch, the park’s director of marketing.
“In addition, hundreds of benches invite guests to take it slow, and you
can find a lot of people taking a siesta in these Mediterranean temperatures.”
While he doesn’t think the heat has affected attendance at Holiday Park,
“consumer behavior is affected; everything is a bit slower.”
In northern Italy,
Gardaland saw a strong May—with an attendance spike of more than 12 percent
over May 2002—turn into a decrease in June, which should have been a stronger
month. “The heat has reached unexpected values,” said Roberta Brentarolli,
Gardaland’s sales manager. Especially notable was a decrease in the number
of school groups and families with small children, she said.
Though attendance
dipped, “we recorded an exceptional increase in food and beverage per capita
spending,” Brentarolli said. Gourevitch, too, said Grévin &
Cie properties saw guests purchase more soft drinks and ice cream than usual,
“but only at the expense of other in-park purchases. So no major gains
on ice cream, either.”
Gourevitch is equally
pessimistic about the rest of the year. “It is now too late to make up
for lost ground: school is gradually starting again, all over Europe.”
Nevertheless, the company is still expected to meet its forecast of posting
a slight growth for 2003, he said. “Two things saved us, we think. First,
the start of the season was very good and put us ahead of schedule. This was
true specifically of our regional amusement parks. Second, Grévin &
Cie is now in three separate—related, but distinct—lines of business,
and if tourist attractions didn’t fare all too well, amusement parks compensated
for that. To us, that validates once more our strategy of seeking diversification
and locally strong, rather than destination, facilities.”
Mallasch expects Holiday Park to come out of the hot summer with decent numbers, in part because the theme park has begun offering “Summernights:” On Fridays and Saturdays the park stays open until midnight, “A novum in Germany,” he said. Gardaland, meanwhile, got a boost in attendance in July because of its evening hours and the late-June opening of a new ride (see New Arrival), which not only happened to generate the marketing boost and buzz typical of a new ride but also happened to be a water ride, Escape from Atlantis. “With two big descents and a breathtaking scenography, it conveys a sense of freshness and adrenaline absolutely apt to the warm months we are going through,” Brentarolli said.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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