In this issue:
(To go directly to a story, click on a blue keyword below):

The Herschends make themselves a name for their corporation, and
Cypress Gardens gets bogged down by expansion news;

SNELAC’s president gets a medal for her mettle,
IAHA’s president leaves his post in good hands, and
NEAAPA shares its wealth with PAPA and NJAA;

Dinosaurs serve as precursors to birds at Miami Metrozoo,
a British couple turns Fun Spot into a fast-track wedding chapel, and
Funtasticks’ marketing director gets hung up on charities;

Knott’s Berry Farm gets Merry in a Scary kind of way,
Santa soaks in the exhibits at Denver’s Ocean Journey, and
Give Kids The World comes up Roses.

Speaking of Give Kids The World, we welcome a dino-themed miniature golf course there, we welcome Mini Israel at long last, and we welcome Doggywood to Dollywood;

And THE LOOP has good news coming down the line.

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Naming right
The shareholders had reason for concern. It was their name on the line. Literally.

This week, Silver Dollar City, Inc., changed its name to Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation (see Extra! Extra!), a nomenclature using the revered name of the family that founded the Silver Dollar City Theme Park in Branson, Missouri, in 1960 and has continued to run the park and parent company as an industry exemplar.

The Herschend family, who comprise the shareholders, had been pondering the corporate name change for several years, said company President and CEO Mel Bilbo. The actual decision had been “in the works for a few months,” he said. A sticking point was publicizing the family name like that.

“I was privy to listening to most of the family discuss this, 20 or 30 of them in the room, three generations now,” Bilbo said. “There were some who were reluctant, wondering if it seemed too egotistical or that it would be flaunting themselves.” Upon consulting the company’s board of directors, the majority of which are not members of the family, “everyone was convinced, and the decision was unanimous.”

With good reason. As Bilbo pointed out, “within the industry there’s a lot of equity” in the Herschend name, beginning with Silver Dollar City founders Mary and Hugo and continuing today with Peter and Jack. The Herschend name is synonymous with the SDC corporation and all the values the latter represents. Listen to Dolly Parton talk about the firm with which she partners in ownership and operation of Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and she always refers to “The Herschends,” never Silver Dollar City, Inc.

Ah, that’s the rub. As a corporation, the name “Herschend” carries more value than does “Silver Dollar City.” “Unless you are in the center of the country or within the industry, (Silver Dollar City) doesn’t tell you who we are,” Bilbo said. That was becoming a growing problem for a company with entertainment properties and partnerships in Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland and Florida, as well as around Branson, ranging from a White Water to Dixie Stampedes. It is also a company that is, as the name-change portends, continuing a steady course of expansion. Most of Herschend’s properties are not Silver Dollar Cities redux but themed venues of their own styling, albeit with the same operational philosophy and family focus of the original.

Which is why Bilbo is equally pleased with the new name’s middle words: Family Entertainment. “We’re letting folks know that we are giving it a family seal of approval,” he said. There’s a pun in that statement: the seal of approval comes from a family known to be dedicated to delivering the goods to families.

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Gardens pickings
Another venerable industry institution is in the thick of swirling rumors of expansion, but is none too keen about being so. Cypress Gardens near Winter Haven, Florida, is planning to add a new Natural Structures enclosed tube slide to its 2-year-old water park and is expanding its concert series for 2003. These are not the expansion plans making headlines around Central Florida, however.

Instead, the media has focused on the potential, stated by the owners, that some of the 66-year-old park’s unused property might be used for residential development. The rumors began when well-known land developer Larry Maxwell purchased an equity interest in the park in October 2001. Broached about the potential of turning the park into a real estate gold mine, Cypress Gardens CEO Bill Reynolds did not deny the possibility, and in fact noted that the owners would soon begin exploring such options.

Suddenly, Cypress Gardens entered the endangered species list in the minds of Central Floridians, much to its own chagrin. “Our first love is Cypress Gardens,” said Will Reynolds, Bill's son and the park’s director who heads up the park’s marketing efforts. “I don’t want this information construed the wrong way. We’re trying to focus on tourism. We’re trying to get tourism through our doors, not focus on land development.”

With tourism in Central Florida sagging the past two years—Will Reynolds said Cypress Gardens attendance was down 12 percent, but “we’re doing pretty decent, better than other businesses, in light of what has happened the last year and a half,”—the park’s owners simply want a ready option should the slide continue. With the park utilizing only 90 acres, that leaves 130 acres of prime Florida real estate available for whatever use.

“We want to make sure we have a plan in the future,” Will Reynolds said. “I’m not telling you we’re going to build. I’m not telling you we’re not going to build. We don’t know yet. We’re just now starting to wake up and say, ‘What are some of our options?’ Tourism is tough. We’re trying to make sure we don’t put all our eggs in one basket.”

Of one thing he is certain. Even if some of those eggs eventually move to another basket, the garden spot with its boat rides, Southern Belles, ski show, growing waterpark and new entertainment series will continue to carry the larger load for many years to come.

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Corbiére, left, and Grévin & Cie CEO Olivier de Bosredon added luster to Faujanet’s medalceremony.
Photo courtesy of Grévin & Cie.

Meriting attention
When someone pins a medal on your chest, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt your efforts have not gone unnoticed. When Sylvie Faujanet, company secretary of Grévin & Cie and president of France’s Syndicat National des Espaces de Loisirs, d’Attractions et Culturels (SNELAC, the trade association of amusement parks, attractions and museums), received the Ordre National du Mérite in October, an entire industry was recognized for its importance in French culture.

The National Order of Merit, honoring significant contributions to community, carries the weight of France’s other high honors, the Legion of Honor and the Arts and Letters award. France’s President Jacques Chirac awarded Faujanet the medal on the recommendation of the minister of tourism. “I would hate to sound pretentious, but it was my impression that the minister of tourism was wishing to express the greater social posture of our industry relative to other tourism-related industries in France,” Faujanet said.

She has been a pivotal figure in achieving that stature for the industry in her country. She joined the staff of Parc Asterix in 1988 and helped bring that venue, France’s first theme park, to fruition. Being the first was not enough for the Asterix team; setting a high standard for all other parks to follow was equally important, and Faujanet, director of human resources, was essential to that goal, a goal she has stoutly pursued as her responsibilities grew within Parc Asterix and the park’s parent company, Grévin & Cie.

That likewise was the thrust of her work with SNELAC, “training the young and sometimes not-so-young people who are learning the basics of this industry,” she said. “It’s important for the industry to grow its expertise and accumulate its skills.” That goal took on political ramifications when SNELAC was able to get labor laws extended to workers within the amusement industry. SNELAC itself gained greater stature as Faujanet led a membership drive beyond theme parks to include other leisure facilities such as privately run zoos, castles, nature parks and museums.

During the award ceremony at the Grévin Wax Museum in Paris when, in keeping with the tradition of the award, previous Mérite winner and Forest Hill CEO Michel Corbiére presented Faujanet the medal, the honored but humble recipient turned her speech toward her favorite subject: giving youths the tools to succeed. “Have faith in life,” she told the assembly of family members, government officials, Grévin colleagues and leisure industry leaders. “Be attentive to the signs life will send you. And life will give a lot back.”

“My real purpose was to wink the eye and send a friendly message to my younger relatives who were standing in the room,” Faujanet said. “I simply wanted to tell them never to lose courage and always be on the lookout for opportunities life may bring to them. When you operate a theme park, you have a lot of young people working there, and it’s important to give them direction early on in their careers and to give them self-confidence to take whatever the first steps in their careers might be and whatever first turn their lives might take.”

Words of wisdom from a woman of Merit.

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A turn of events
A fledgling organization that loses its leader normally is an organization on the verge of collapse. For the International Association of Haunted Attractions, the unexpected resignation of its president Bob Turner and the subsequent elevation of Vice President Liz Foral during the association’s semiannual Board of Directors meeting at the IAAPA Convention and Trade Show last month represents an organization that has matured into a viable and lasting trade association.

Turner resigned as president of the 5-year-old IAHA nine months after his election (THE LOOP March 22, 2002) because of struggles with his business, Turner Enterprise Inc., which runs Haunted Hydro Dark Attraction Park in Fremont, Ohio. “Due to 9-11, a fire, and extreme weather, three of our five business activities in the last year and a half have lost revenue,” he wrote to the IAHA membership. “I have been forced to curtail all outside business functions.” Turner still plans to attend IAHA's annual meeting at the Transworld show in Chicago in March where he will run his Crazy Bob Talk-Back seminar and host the association’s annual auction.

The work he had been doing as president is now in the willing hands of Foral, half owner of Mystery Manor in Omaha, Nebraska, who had worked closely with Turner in his IAHA duties. “We made quite a nice team together because we had the same philosophy,” she said. She wants to continue his work of promoting educational seminars around the country and strengthening the committee structure within the association. She also plans to tackle issues concerning building codes, firming up membership and setting the agenda for March’s Transworld seminars. At that annual meeting, she plans to run for re-election.

With former IAHA president D'Ann Dagen, owner of La-De-Da Productions in Fort Worth, Texas, providing administrative support for the association and a board confident in the elected leadership, the transition from Turner to Foral created nary a blip in the association’s functioning. “That we have these things in place, yeah, that really streamlines things,” Foral said. “I think we’re definitely on our way.”

She also was coming off an IAAPA where the IAHA booth hosted several officials from theme parks seeking the association’s expertise. “They are coming to us for that education. It was absolutely our pleasure to provide that education.” Foral may believe IAHA is “on their way,” but in many respects—and in terms of respect—they have arrived.

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Training days
The New England Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions (NEAAPA) are just being good neighbors. The trade association has scheduled its 2003 winter training series in January and are offering all four sessions to members of the Pennsylvania Amusement Parks Association and the New Jersey Amusement Association at the NEAAPA member rate of $50 per session, $150 for all four (nonmember rates are $75 and $225).

The training sessions are full-day events, beginning with John Paul Scott, a former Disney Imagineer and now owner of Create Access architectural firm, leading a program on the Americans with Disabilities Act and Access Board Regulations, January 8 at Canobie Lake Park in Salem, New Hampshire. The Food Service and FEC roundtables are January 16 at Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut. The next day Lake Compounce also hosts the Rides and Security roundtables, and on January 29 Canobie hosts the Games and Retail roundtables.

To sign up for any of these sessions, call 860-620-9117, e-mail neaapa2@aol.com, or visit www.neaapa.com.

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Kids dig dinosaurs, and Miami Metrozoo hopes they'll dig birds, too. Photo courtesy of Miami Metrozoo.

Fossil fuels
Did birds descend from dinosaurs? At the Miami Metrozoo in Florida, they will.

The American Bankers Family Aviary The Wings of Asia, a 2.6-acre (1-hectare) free-flight aviary that will eventually house about 300 birds comprising 70 exotic species, is scheduled to open in April 2003, and the zoo enlisted the help of some heavy hitters to market the new attraction: a mamenchisaurus, a giganotosaurus, a triceratops and a T-rex, among others. The dinosaurs are part of a traveling exhibit called “The Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” which combines sculptures and scenes from the Steven Spielberg film, "Jurassic Park: The Lost World," with actual dinosaur artifacts and fossil casts.

Don Lessem, president of Dinosaur Productions, created the exhibit with Universal Studios and Amblin/Dreamworks Entertainment donating all their royalties to Lessem’s Jurassic Foundation, which finances field work by paleontologists. The exhibit has been touring mostly science centers and natural history museums around the United States. After the Miami Metrozoo stint ends January 3 it is heading for Taiwan.

The Metrozoo booked the exhibit expressly as a prelude to the aviary’s opening. “Our story line for the aviary is that birds are living dinosaurs,” said Sherrie Avery, director of public relations for the Zoological Society of Florida. The aviary will include a field research center plus fossils and interactive displays tracing how birds could be descended from dinosaurs. Children will be able to dig for dinosaur bones in a re-creation of a fossil excavation pit, which likely will be as big a hit in the aviary as a similar pit in the Jurassic Park exhibit has been this fall.

As big as the aviary will be, none of its species will approach the stature of the statues at Jurassic Park, like the 72-foot-long, 24-foot-high (22-meter-long, seven-meter-high) Mamenchisaurus, and a 45-foot-long, 15-foot-tall (14-meter-long, 4.5-meter-tall) Giganotosaurus, a larger version of Tyrannosaurus rex and likely the largest meat-eating dinosaur ever discovered. In addition to these statues, the exhibit contains fossil casts of a pteranadon, bellusaurus and stegoceras plus four tableaux lifted from the Hollywood movie featuring a baby stegosaurus in a field camp, velociraptors and, of course, the T-rex.

Opened September 13 and included in a regular Metrozoo admission, The Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park has proved a most effective preview to the aviary, Avery said. “The turnout has been absolutely incredible,” she said, starting with the opening weekend members’ night which attracted 2,500 members despite a rainstorm. “It poured, poured, poured rain, and they came in the driving rain,” Avery said. “It goes to show you what people will do for dinosaurs.”

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The British couple raced to the alter at Orlando's Fun Spot go-kart track. Photo courtesy of Fun Spot Action Park.

Fast track to marriage
Checklist of things to do in one week: Check—conduct a seminar at the IAAPA Convention and Trade Show; Check—pick up a Brass Ring award for your radio commercial; Check—launch a licensing arm of your business; Check—host a manufacturer reception; Check—stage the first-ever go-kart wedding.

To say Fun Spot Action Park in Orlando, Florida, had an eventful week in November is to say the Shuttle launch is a big jet taking off. The International Drive venue with the multilevel wood go-kart tracks—a concept patented by owner John Arie that he started licensing via the Shaller Enjuneering booth at the trade show—was already gearing up for a busy IAAPA when two fans from Great Britain showed up requesting that the park host their matrimonial nuptials.

Not wanting to look a wedding gift horse in the mouth, Fun Spot agreed to the unusual November 25 ceremony uniting Martin Smith, 18, of Dundee Scotland and Lynda Kennerly, 20. of Warrington, England. How unusual? Steve Hix, director of the International Recreational Go Kart Association, does not recall any other such go-kart wedding.

“They were willing to allow us to give it to them for free and provide a free reception for publicity sake,” said Mark Brisson, Fun Spot’s marketing director. “So we were responsible for securing the music, the flowers, the veil and the ‘Just Married’ sign. The groom was more interested in apparel more appropriate for go-kart riding than getting married.”

Fun Spot also provided the minister, Juan Garnica, an ordained pastor at the Church in the Son in Orlando and part-time photographer at Fun Spot. Garnica was the catalyst for the wedding. Smith and Kennerly visited Fun Spot on a vacation a year ago and met Garnica, learning then that he is a minister. When they returned with Smith’s family (his mother, sister, brother, and his mother’s boyfriend) this year, they asked him to marry them. “He said, ‘Where do you want to get married?’ and they said they wanted to get married in the park, and that got the ball rolling,’” Brisson said.

For the ceremony, the groom’s mother and the bride drove a kart around the track and hid in one of the helixes. When the “Wedding March” started playing over the park’s loudspeaker, the mother drove the bride down the helix and into the loading area, parking alongside the groom. A Fun Spot employee then turned off their engine so the couple could hear Garnica do the ceremony. During the nuptials, the bride transferred to the groom’s cart, and after they kissed at the conclusion of the vows they drove off around the track with the ‘Just Married’ sign and trailing paper cups attached to the kart.


For the reception the park donated pizza and soda, and the wedding party toasted with Sierra Mist rather than champagne “because we don’t believe in drinking and driving with go-karts,” Brisson said. The event received extensive coverage on the local CBS and NBC television affiliates, with the latter broadcasting across the country. “We’ve gotten phone calls from New York and Indiana saying they saw the go-kart wedding,” Brisson said. Still, the park does not plan to pedal more such events. “We’re not trying to tap that market, no,” he said.

Nevertheless, Fun Spot would do it again. “It was a lot of fun,” Brisson said. “We’re glad we did it, and we’d do it again in a heartbeat. The fact it came on the heals of IAAPA was hard.”

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Hofer's sun catchers give nonprofit groups a helping hand. Photo courtesy of www.nicegift.org.

Return visit
The marketing director of Funtasticks and Fiddlesticks Family Fun Parks in Arizona, who espoused community service as an effective marketing and employee retention tool for cash-strapped venues (THE LOOP November 8, 2002), is carrying her sense of charitable commitment into a sideline business. Jill Hofer makes stained glass sun catchers and ornaments that she sells on her web site, www.nicegift.org. Part of the proceeds of every item she sells is earmarked for local charities. Thanks to Hofer’s own standing in the community and among the media because of her activities at the family entertainment centers, two local television stations have ordered five dozen customized ornaments from her to send as gifts to corporate clients, gifts that, in turn, will help the local Boys and Girls Club purchase a television set.

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LOOP Classifieds

FOR SALE—Classified ads in THE LOOP, just $20 per month (two issues) for up to 30 words, $1 per additional word. We accept cash, check, VISA and MasterCard. E-mail lynne@gettheloop.com.

New Arrivals

Dinosaurs truly are not shy around Give Kids The Worlds players. Photo courtesy of Give Kids The World.

It’s a mini-golf course!
Give Kids The World in Kissimmee, Florida, announces the arrival of Marc’s Dino-Putt Miniature Golf Course, December 3, 2002. Measurements: 3/4 acres, seven holes, 11 dinosaurs (four animatronic), three fog effects, three water effects, 250 palms, flowering trees and bamboo and 4,000 shrubs. Delivered by Universal Orlando designers and employees and by Hensel Phelps Construction, ITEC Productions, Johnson Brothers, Kern Studios, Oceaneering International, PBS&J Landscape Architects and Planners, Safari Thatch, Valley Crest and Wittek Golf Supply.

The cartoonish gallery of chattering compys dinosaurs around the first hole gets play off to a whimsical start, but you know you are playing a truly special golf course on the second hole. En route to making par, an ultrasaur helps you by lifting your ball with his nose and punching it onto the green toward the hole.

Universal Studios had long wanted to do something of its own at the Give Kids The World Village, and when the charity suggested a miniature golf course Universal’s creative team went to work. They didn’t hold back, either. The course cost $2.2 million, and that was cheap. “If they ever created that kind of attraction for an outside facility, it would be closer to $11 million,” said Kristin Weissman, Give Kids The World’s manager of communications.

Each hole has a special effects trick in addition to the sound of roaring or yapping dinosaurs whenever the ball makes it in the cup. Parasaurolophi blow steam at golfers on Hole Three (and making the final putt will get you a squirt of water from a member of the gallery). The fourth hole is in a cave, a winding putting green through the sounds of roaring dinosaurs concluding with a putt that triggers a volcanic eruption. On the fifth hole you aim for the stegosaur’s mouth, and the ball passes through its spine to the tune of a marimba. The seventh and final hole offers a “surprise:” make the putt, and a roaring Tyrannosaurus rex rears up.

When the Universal designers came up with the idea of a dinosaur-themed course, the GKTW staff were apprehensive. “We shocked a few people, especially after they went through Jurassic Park” at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure, Universal Creative Project Manager Brad Goeb said. “The main concern was to have the friendliest dinosaurs to interact with the kids.” The designers achieved that by building realistic looking dinosaurs anatomically, but using friendlier colors and smoothing out the skin and features. Oceaneering, which built the dinosaurs at Jurassic Park also built Marc’s critters.

Another important design parameter was the length of individual holes, which was more important than the total number of holes, Goeb said. “The holes are longer than typical miniature golf courses so the whole family can really get out there and be in one area and have more interaction, and it allows plenty of room for wheelchairs.”

The course is named for the late Marc McConnell, whose visit to GKTW Village in 1999 inspired him to battle back against his cancer and become a three-year campaigner for organ donations (he died three days short of his 14th birthday). His parents and five siblings were on hand the sunny morning of December 3 along with pro golfers Scott Hoch and Mark McCumber to officially open the course with a mini-golf challenge involving local television news personalities. The event drew all the major television stations and print media outlets in sOrlando, Weissman said, “which was pretty big for us.”

Sportscaster Gary Cohl won the challenge in what turned out to be a one-hole shoot-out. “Because so many children were on the course, we just did one hole,” Weissman said. That hole, Number 6, culminates with a nest of baby pterodactyls chirping at the putters’ success. Everybody really wanted to use that second hole for the competition, but the ultrasaur was too busy helping other children win.

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The Bahai Gardens and Mount Hermon ski slopes gave Israelis cause to reflect on all that's right with their land. Photo courtesy of Mini Israel.

It’s a miniature park!
Mini Israel in Latrun, Israel, announces its arrival, December 1, 2002. Measurements: 60,000 square meters (15 acres), 300 models, 30,000 figures of which 3,000 are animatronic, 700 vehicles, 20,000 miniature plants, one restaurant, one cafeteria, two food kiosks, one gift shop, 200 employees.

Eiran Gazit and his long-suffering team of artisans and managers always figured that if they could get Mini Israel built, people would come. They had aimed for a Millennium eve opening, but a faulty tax assessment and succeeding bureaucratic red top stalled that. They then aimed for spring 2001, but regional political violence intervened. They then set their sites on fall of 2002.

Sure enough, when they opened on September 3, people came. Big time. About 25,000 people showed up over four days for a park with a capacity of just 4,000. The subsequent traffic jams and security concerns prompted the police to close Mini Israel down. The park waited another month before the police allowed it to reopen, and then waited out the general national uncertainties arising from Issrael’s tottering government.

Finally, the first week of Hanukkah, Mini Israel opened for real. The week saw 15,000 guests visit the park, 4,000 on each of the two sunny weekend days. “That is what we strove for,” said Gazit, Mini Israel’s CEO. The park officially is still in soft opening, with one section still unfinished. The official opening ceremony will come in spring, if all goes well.

That’s a big if. A US$20 million investment, Mini Israel’s timing is precarious. While the initial turnout is encouraging, and Gazit said the park has secured group reservations well into next year, he is forecasting a gate of about 300,000 for 2003. That figure is based solely on local tourism; currently Israel is attracting no international visitors. “Once we get international tourism, we’re expecting half a million.” On the other hand, if there is a war in Iraq, local tourism will disappear, too, Gazit said.

At the least Mini Israel with its 1:25-scale depictions of various Holy Landmarks—historical sites associated with three religions—has been a shaft of good news in a troubled land. “The reaction has been amazing,” Gazit said. “People understand we’re still under development, but we’re getting a big ‘Wow!’ The whole country was talking about us.”

Israeli television’s most popular show, the satire-laced “Only In Israel” opened its season with a profile of the park. “We’re on television every week,” Gazit said. “We’ve already been on CNN, French television, Belgium television, Italian television. It’s creating a lot of interest just because of the fact of the international political situation and the security situation, yet a tourist attraction has opened. It couldn’t happen anywhere else. It’s like a show of sanity in an insane place.”

Here’s wishing sanity prosperity. “We are praying for peace and hoping that tourism comes back,” Gazit said. “It’s like a dream come true, but now we have to return the investment.”

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It’s a dog kennel!
Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, announces the arrival of Doggywood, November 9, 2002. Measurements: 1,600 square feet (148 square meters), four cottages, 12 dog runs.

Dollywood didn’t raise much of a ruckus about its fancy new dog kennels, the first ever at the theme park. “We had kind of a quiet opening,” said Pete Owens, the park’s public relations manager. For six months before Doggywood’s debut, Dollywood handed out letters describing the new kennels to anybody who entered the park with an animal and sent invitations to season pass holders known to own animals inviting them to try out the new facility themed to look like little homes (Dollywood had allowed pets in the park as long as they were on a lead, but “after studying that procedure we decided it would be better for the animals if we had a facility to provide for them,” Owens said).

Ruckus not necessary. Doggywood has been filled almost to capacity since it opened. “We’re routinely very close to being full almost every day of operation,” Owens said. That's during a time when only part of the park is open for its annual holiday festival. “During peak season I would imagine demand might be higher. There’s lots of room to expand it. We wanted to do it in phases to see what the reaction was going to be. It’s been overwhelming, so we may have to expand it before we open for next season.”

Dogs don’t just get a pretty place to lie about. The kennels have beds and water. Staff inspect the animals when they are booked into the hound hotel, and owners check in to feed their dogs and give them a little loving during the course of a visit. “Patrons who have traditionally brought animals to the park are ecstatic by the quality of the facility and staff,” Owens said. “It just exceeded their expectations. We really pampered the pooches.”

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Eric's Turn

Down the line
Sometimes, the getting of the stories in THE LOOP is more meaningful than the actual stories we publish. This issue has four cases in point, and they happen to be from three successive phone calls I had Wednesday morning and another yesterday.

First was with Sylvie Faujanet in Paris. I’ve had dinner with this woman along with other European amusement industry leaders in a Barcelona, Spain, cafe, and have long been impressed with her devotion to the industry and her work in spreading the gospel of good training among young workers at amusement facilities. While I felt the honor and privilege of talking with her by phone through a translator, I was most taken with the persistent humility emanating from her voice. This was a woman who had been accorded one of her nation’s highest honors. Just by her very personality and bearing she teaches us all so much.

Next on my list was Eiran Gazit, the CEO of Mini Israel. This New Arrival is most apropos to this season, of course, as the three major religions depicted in Mini Israel all celebrate major holidays this time of year. However, for me reporting on this great event is bittersweet. I have closely followed the history of Mini Israel’s development, and I know what was SUPPOSED to happen. Back in 1999 when I first came to know Eiran, his Director of Sales and Marketing Yoni Shapira, and his Technical Directors Koby Paz, they were pushing ahead on a project that could have attracted up to a million visitors during the Millennium. Furthermore, they were actively pursuing regional partnerships utilizing their model-building expertise and an international association of miniature parks, efforts that had them in close contact with professional counterparts in neighboring countries.

That was when the region was basking in prospects for lasting peace. Bureaucratic delays pushed Mini Israel’s construction back, and in the meantime the peace process fell to pieces. Now the region is suffering as much upheaval as it ever has. Yes, Mini Israel is a victim of the circumstances, but more importantly so is Eiren’s goal for a network of purveyors delivering quality entertainment to people throughout the region. On the phone he sounded weary, but he never once let on that he was relinquishing hope. I’m guessing his mission is simply put on hold.

Immediately after hanging up the phone with Eiran I was talking with Dollywood’s Pete Owens in Tennessee. He was on his mobile phone as he told me about the park’s new Doggywood kennels; many of my contacts are out in the park so much that interviews on cell phones is not unusual. But then Pete started interrupting our interview to give driving directions to Jill Thompson, who also works in Dollywood’s public relations department. Pete then explained: a former employee of Dollywood had recently broken her back, and Pete, Jill and some of the crew who decorate the park for Christmas were on their way to decorate her house. It would be a surprise for the woman.

Yesterday I interviewed by phone Universal Florida’s Brad Goeb, the project manager for Give Kids The World’s new miniature golf course. I was looking for matter-of-fact information on their clever designs of the dinosaurs and special effects, but it quickly became obvious that Brad was more than proud of his team’s work; he was enraptured with the whole experience. Universal’s creative team has come to represent the highest quality of entertainment experiences in the industry, and their first-ever miniature golf course ranks right up there with anything they've done in Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Yes, anything, Mr. Spider-man. Yet, the company will get nil from the product in terms of income; only the satisfaction of contributing such a fun experience to the families visiting Give Kids The World.

So this is the season of giving? In our industry, the season lasts 365 days a year, in good times and bad.

Happy holidays, everybody. We’ll see you in 2003.

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