Volume 3, No. 15. August 8,2003
You
gotta Believe
On Saturday, just a little more than one month after opening its 26th museum
in Key West, Florida (see New Arrival), Ripley Entertainment
will cut the ribbon for its 27th Ripley’s Believe It Or Not odditorium,
this one in New Orleans, Louisiana. Another museum in Kuwait City, Kuwait, is
slated for a January 2004 opening.
In the face of slumping economies and a struggling travel industry, Ripley Entertainment
properties are holding their own, President Bob Masterson said, and the company
is looking to expand. Most notably into waterparks.
Already Ripley is planning to build a waterpark in Florida, Masterson said,
declining to give the location until the company finalizes the deal. The building
of such a waterpark would bring a long-held desire to fruition. “We like
the waterpark business because it’s something we can do well,” Masterson
said. “We’ve been trying to acquire waterpark companies for some time
and haven’t been successful.”
The building of such a waterpark also would be the launch of a long-term strategy
which would result in a chain of waterparks, he said. “We’d go into
markets we understand better. We’d give them a unique theme. And we’re
going to spend the money required to make them special.”
One of Ripley Entertainment’s strengths has been building in markets the
company understands, whether it was their Believe It Or Not Museums or their
aquariums in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee, the latter
the nation’s most successful aquarium last year in terms of attendance.
Ripley also knows how to specifically appeal to the markets they are in. The
Key West Believe It Or Not is a typical Ripley museum, albeit with exhibits
unique to the location, as is true of all Believe It Or Nots.
The New Orleans version “is definitely different,” Masterson said,
in that it will feature much larger and more valuable pieces, ranging from a
12-foot-long (3.5-meter) London Tower Bridge made of matchsticks to a full-size
crucifix featuring a skeleton that has the life of Christ scrimshawed onto the
bones, created by a Sioux artist. “It’s a beautiful piece,” Masterson
said. The 11,500-square-foot (1,068-square-meter) gallery occupies an old Planet
Hollywood right on New Orleans’ Jackson Square, continuing Ripley’s
penchant for locating its museums at ground zero of any tourism destination.
Right now, such destinations are seeing dismal times; yet Masterson said he
has reason to be bullish. “Ripley’s has done very well despite the
fact that markets all over the world are down,” he said. “We are doing
better than the markets we’re in. People may say the market is down 40
percent, like at Niagara Falls; the Ripley’s there is down, but nowhere
near that. In the Orlando market the Ripley’s is actually up. In other
markets Ripley’s is down a couple percentage points, is up in many markets,
and overall doing great.”
He attributes this ongoing attendance success to the Ripley’s Believe It
Or Not publications and television show, now in its fifth season with first-season
shows being rerun in syndication and the old Jack Palance version showing up
on some cable outlets. All told, Ripley’s is seen in about 100 countries.
Meanwhile, the museums and aquariums carry the Ripley’s brand, which is
trusted by tourists with tighter spending capability.
As for the Kuwait City property—a Believe It Or Not which was supposed
to open this summer in the Al Sha’ab Leisure Park—construction stalled
when the whole area was closed down prior to the coalition invasion of Iraq.
However, the whole Middle East market remains viable, and Kuwait in particular
is a loaded with potential, Masterson said; especially for Ripley. “It’s
not intended for international tourists, it’s a product for Kuwaitis, and
it’s a good diversion at a time diversions are really needed.”
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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