Volume 2, No. 12. June 28, 2002
Scoping
out a future
The new Destination Cosmos show at Planète Futuroscope in Jaunay-Clan,
France, exits next to a gift shop, a typical strategy at theme parks today.
At this shop, however, guests can purchase a telescope, among other interplanetary-themed
wares, and that exemplifies as much as anything what sets this 300-hectare (741-acre)
park near Poitiers apart from any other.
Differentiating
from France’s other amusement parks has helped Planète Futuroscope
total 27 million visitors in its 25-year history. But it needs to do better
to sustain its high-tech environment, so new Director Generale Philippe Laflandre
this year is embarking on a strategy to grow attendance and encourage repeat
visits while looking at ways to cut operational costs, including cutting back
from a year-round schedule.
Opened in 1987, Futuroscope offers 20 attractions, including 15 stunning geometric structures each housing a different type of cinema, from surround-screens to 3D movies. “We are the only place in the world where you can have the six different Imax processes in one place,” Laflandre said. The park saw double-digit attendance growth its first six years, and by 1996 management was so encouraged at the success it expanded the park’s calendar from nine months to year-round.
“That
grew a lot of expenses,” said Laflandre, who came to Futuroscope 14 months
ago after serving 10 years at Euro Disney where he was vice president of theme
parks. Meanwhile, attendance has been decreasing since 1999, dropping from 2.3
million in 2000 to about 2 million last year.
The
park changed its name in February from Parc du Futuroscope to Planète
Futuroscope as part of a European-wide get-re-acquainted marketing campaign.
For the venue itself Laflandre decided on a course of “optimization of
what is already built” rather than overhauling the physical plant. In other
words, he plans to replace five of his films and shows every year. “Let’s
say I have this thing that is not giving the highest satisfaction in the park,
so I refurbish it and put something new in its place,” he said. “Therefore
I avoid spending my scarce money on digging and building walls.
This year the park introduced Plongeurs sans Limite (Ocean Men) about dueling breath holding divers, Les ailes du courage (The Wings of Courage), the true story of a pilot who survived a crash in the Andes, Sur les traces du Panda (The Panda Adventure) portraying a woman’s quest to site a giant panda in China, and Destination Cosmos. Planète Futuroscope also opened a new multi-media nighttime extravanganze, Le Miroir d’Uranie (see the New Arrival on this show in THE LOOP, February 8, 2002).
All
of its films have an educational element to them, securing a core school group
business which comprises about 20 percent of attendance, Laflandre said. Another
20 percent of his gate comes from group sales. The rest are individuals and
families, and the park already has a return rate of 45 percent. To increase
both those last two sectors Planète Futuroscope will be hosting new entertainment
programs to prompt local patrons in particular to return often during the course
of the year.
In
conjunction with its space theme for this year, the park staged an E.T. festival
that ran from February to April 4, when the reissued Steven Spielberg movie
opened in France. “The rationale of our marketing thrust was that ET gave
as a rendezvous to his extraterrestrial friends the only place it could happen,
which is Futuroscope,” Leflandre said. The park is planning a Brazilian
folk festival for the summer and something for Halloween and Christmas. This,
though, could be the only Christmas festival the park stages; beginning in 2003
Leflandre is planning to close the park from Halloween to February.
“Our
plan is to grow attendance in ’02,” he said. “Even maintaining
2 million would be a good number for me, but there are chances we could do better.”
212.265.0043
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