Volume 2, No. 6. March 22, 2002
Building
from the ground up
Want to inspire your staff to a feeling
that they can surmount mountains? Build a mountain.
Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park in Kapolei, Hawaii, took on new management this year and faced an uncertain season of attendance thanks to the downturn in destination tourism. However, instead of retrenching, the waterpark embarked on one of the most ambitious capital improvements ever in its three-year history and looked to the land for inspiration.
Volcano Express, set to open
Memorial Day weekend, features a four-lane race slide by ProSlide Technology
descending from a heavily themed volcano. Plans include smoke rising from the
top, steam oozing off the sides and fiery, red light illumination at night.
The slides themselves will start off as red at the top, fade to orange by the
mid-point and end up as yellow at the bottom, representing molten lava flowing
down the volcano.
The park is marketing this as the
island of Oahu's only active volcano, and the $400,000 project represents the
first time Hawaiian Waters has gone beyond landscaping and signage in theming
a ride. But it's not the archipelago state's active volcanos that gave management
its inspiration, but the dormant ones.
"Everything else that we've done
in the park is given names based on something to do with Hawaii," said Jerry
Pupillo, the park's new general manager. "All the islands were formed by volcanos.
In developing a new ride we thought that the way to expand and do new things
is the way Hawaii expanded and became new things, which was via volcanos. We're
having a little fun with it; it's a motivation for our staff."
It is specifically timed motivation.
Horizon Amusement Group of Sacramento, California, was contracted to build and
manage Hawaiian Waters, training a management team to take over in its wake.
That contract concluded at the end of last year, and Pupillo, the park's first
hired employee, took over as General Manager January 1. His new management team
settled on the ambitious Volcano Express project. "It was a tremendous
commitment on our ownership's part, and greatly appreciated," Pupillo said.
Especially in view of the coming season's uncertainty in attendance. About 30 percent of Hawaiian Waters' gate comes from out-of-state tourists, the bulk of that coming from Japan, a market which markedly fell off after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Even if that market doesn't bounce back this year, Pupillo feels Volcano Express will heighten interest in the local market for the 2002 season. "Then, when the tourists start coming back, we'll have something new to sell them," he said.
