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Volume 1, No. 22. November 30, 2001
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Casting
for answers
Maybe Cleo, the television
psychic, should get a booth at next year's IAAPA Trade Show. The commodity
most in demand among this year's buyers and vendors was a glimpse of the
future, especially an accurate forecast of how next year will bode for
the industry. While the quest for future vision is a by-product of business
and always heightened at trade shows, never has the question "whither
go we?" so dominated an IAAPA Trade Show as it did in Orlando this month.
Cleo would have had a line longer than that at the booth serving Nathan's
hot dogs. Even if her tarot claims are dubious, her psychic methods could
be no more nor less believable than the scientific surveys and think-tank
conclusions being offered at various sessions during the show; and you
can't argue her entertainment value.
But we do need to rightly address the question, a serious one, brought
on by the convergence of two troubling events: a general economic downturn
and the September 11 terrorist attacks. Most prognosticators agree the
former will have more profound impact on consumer activity next year than
the latter. Some experts see the economies starting off 2002 slowly but
booming by spring; others, many inside the amusement industry, believe
the current malaise in expansion won't turn around until next fall, at
the earliest. The terrorist attacks, undoubtedly pushed wavering spenders
into more conservative attitudes, and the lingering fallout—namely,
security-conscious air travel—will dictate family vacation plans
next year.
Overall, the impact could be a wash for most facilities. Even the destination
parks in Florida and Southern California, which suffered up to 25 percent
attendance drops in the summer and fall, could bounce back to post strong
2002 numbers based on marketing efforts aimed at their local and drive
markets. In response to 9-11's inevitable disruption of distant travel
plans, the Orlando Convention and Visitor's Bureau hooked up with Universal
Orlando and SeaWorld to do a 15-city tour of the Southeast United States.
Both parks are offering special discounts through AAA (a drive clientele),
including free vouchers for $20 worth of gas for patrons visiting both
SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Tampa. Those properties along with Universal-owned
Studios, Islands of Adventure and Wet 'n' Wild have extended the value
of their FlexTicket, both in number of days and with free round-trip transportation
from selected Orlando hotels to Busch Gardens. Walt Disney World, meanwhile,
is offering an additional 100 days free for Florida residents who purchase
an annual pass.
Ironically, the primary message in these regional efforts is that this
is the best time to visit these popular theme parks because crowds are
slim. And by flexing their marketing muscles for regional consumers, the
big theme parks are going after those consumers who have boosted attendance
at small parks and attractions the past few years. Still, the overall
pie could be larger for everybody in 2002.
Around the world, domestic travel will probably increase next year. Parks
in the United Kingdom are gearing up for record attendance in 2002; while
foreign tourists don't tend to visit the parks on tours of the country,
Britain's population, staying home next year, are more apt to visit the
parks than historic landmarks. The rest of Europe will likely see the
same trend: the half dozen new theme parks opening across the continent
couldn't have picked a more promising debut year. Japanese tourists are
currently staying home in droves. The only market that may continue overseas
tours is the Middle East, which could further bolster European attractions
and help maintain Australia's tourism numbers.
As for the United States, the Travel Industry Association of America presented
at one IAAPA session survey results indicating that consumers' travel
plans remained largely unchanged after September 11. But the trends toward
more regional-based vacations had already started, and three-fourths of
travel in the United States is done by auto. The travel sector most impacted
by the terrorist attacks was business travel, accounting for a total drop
off of as much as 39 percent, according to the International Air Transport
Association. Overall, the association is anticipating a 3 percent increase
in travel next year over this year, though still well below the levels
of the year 2000. And that, as presenter Andrea Stueve said, is "if nothing
else happens."
A big if, but one attractions can yet capitalize on. U.S. facilities can
take advantage of two heightened emotional strains coursing throughout
the country: patriotism and family ties. Already tourism marketers are
pushing a "See America" message, and the Travel Industry Association surveys
say heritage sites are at the top of Americans' destination preferences.
Even if regional and small parks can't wrap themselves in Americana/nostalgia
bunting, they can still stress their family entertainment values with
a subliminal message of security.
Neither the recession nor the terrorism threat has waylaid a truism about
21st century humankind: people want to have fun. Worldwide park attendance
this summer and strong performances for Halloween-themed venues in October
prove that, and those are the strongest indicators so far that 2002 will
be a good year for parks.
First
in show
Jan J.van Morkhoven is a native
of The Netherlands, and he has a residence in Alicante, Spain. But the
owner of van Morkhoven Consultancy and an active member of IAAPA since
1980 calls the Principat d'Andorra home, and as such remains the only
representative of that tiny country wedged between France and Spain. The
468-square-kilometer (290 square miles) Pyrenees Mountains principality
has only 65,877 inhabitants and no amusement parks or manufacturers, but
it is well represented in the industry: van Morkhoven serves on IAAPA's
Hall of Fame committee.
His hailing
from Andorra also puts the principality's flag—blue, yellow and red
bars with the country's shield in the middle—first in line among
the hundred or so flags in the International Lounge during the annual
IAAPA Trade Shows. The growth of the industry being what it is, Andorra
may not be first in line much longer, with Albania and Algeria preceding
the principality in the alphabet and talk of amusement developments in
both countries. Then, too, the first flag stand may someday be occupied
by Afghanistan.
Bemboom left no stone unturned when it came to pleasing his guests. Photo courtesy of Jan J. van Morkhoven
A stone's throw
Reading our show issue of THE
LOOP (November
16, 2001), Jan J. van Morkhoven felt we slighted the induction
into the IAAPA Hall of Fame of his fellow Dutch native son, J.H. "Henk"
Bemboom. As van Morkhoven pointed out, traditionally IAAPA honors only
one living inductee every year, and this year the association inducted
two living members, with much of the spotlight shining on outgoing IAAPA
CEO John Graff.
Bemboom perhaps deserves special notice precisely because his name is
not well-known outside of Europe, even within the industry, despite his
important innovations. The kind of creativity he was bringing to the European
amusement scene in the 1960s is the kind of outside-the-box-thinking that
could give the industry a much-needed shot in the arm today.
While running a traveling trade show in the late '50s, Bemboom saw his
own childhood dream come true when he bought his first pony. Taking notice
of the affinity between his own children and that pony, Bemboom founded
in 1963 Ponypark Slagharen, a holiday park that rented bungalows, each
with a real pony and cart. He started with 24 bungalows, grew to 160 within
four years and by the end of the decade was renting 300. He also installed
mechanical rides at his holiday park.
In 1971 he introduced pay-one-price admission to his parks. As his colleagues
predicted chaos, Bemboom tested the system one fall day by announcing
to patrons that to celebrate his own birthday he would not charge for
any rides the rest of the day. He continued celebrating his birthday for
a couple more weekends, and he opened the 1972 season with the all-inclusive
entrance fee in place. Many other parks followed his lead.
Bemboom's thinking was simple. Adults seemed to leave early in the afternoon
when they exhausted their budgets, even though their children still wanted
to play. Consequently, nobody left happy. With pay-one-price, he could
keep patrons in the park, he needed less staff, and the environment seemed
happier.
This was the kind of idea that arose from Bemboom's unique but effective
form of marketing research: most afternoons he would sit on the "philosophers'
stone" in the park observing and listening. He never spent a guilder on
formal marketing research. Perhaps every park should add such a stone
to their capital improvements plans for the 2002 season.
Engineering students got Gerstlauer on a roll with its new ride. Photo courtesy of Gerstlauer Elektro GmbH
Honor roll
Hailing from several universities
in southern Germany, the engineering students brought their class project
to Gerstlauer Elektro GmbH two years ago. They had designed a steel caged
wheel on the end of an arm that rotated on a single axis off a tower.
Thanks to a computerized counter-weight system, each step the person inside
the wheel takes raises the wheel, eventually making a full revolution,
peaking at a height of 20.8 meters (68 feet).
One of the students' advisors thought Gerstlauer might be interested in
the project. The folks at the amusement ride manufacturer thought otherwise.
"The first day we looked at it and said, 'Oh, come on. They're crazy,'"
said Franz Maier, sales manager for Gerstlauer. "The next day, after we
slept on it, we thought, 'Well, maybe.' We sat down and started talking
and said, "OK, yeah, let's do it."
They built what they called Space:Walk and installed it in a garden show
in Singen, Germany. The ride proved so popular the garden festival in
Hanau ordered one. Gerstlauer plans to build a couple more to rent to
other garden shows, and brought brochures on the product to the IAAPA
Trade Show. The firm believes the simple ride has a number of amusement
applications, from shopping centers to theme parks, and operators can
use the wheel's steel mesh for sponsor logos. This is the first time Gerstlauer
worked with students, who get royalties for the idea. "If we sell one,
they make money," Maier said. "This sometimes happens. You can't predict
when ideas walk in the door."
For full coverage on this and other new products and news at the IAAPA
Trade Show, see the January issue of Amusement Today, our booth buddies.
Click here
to start your subscription.
Miracle Strip will finally replace its long-gone landmark with a more breathtaking view. Photo by Florida News Bureau/Department of Commerce
Tower power
Another tower ride of a more
traditional type, the S&S Space Shot Turbo Drop Combo, will be assigned
a supplementary role as a sight-seeing structure overlooking the Florida
Panhandle's top beach resort.
Miracle Strip Amusement Park in Panama City Beach is installing the 185-foot
(56 meter) thrill ride O2 for next season. Because the park only
opens for the evening (while the adjoining waterpark, Shipwreck Island,
operates during the day), General Manager Buddy Wilkes plans to allow
sight-seeing rides on O2 during the day. For $8 camera-carrying
guests can slowly ascend the 12-seat tower ride in maintenance mode, spend
a bit of time perched at the top shooting pictures of the Gulf of Mexico
shoreline, then slowly descend to the ground. The guests then hand over
their cameras to ride attendants—or get off the ride, if they so
choose—before being shot back up to the top and free-falling down.
The Lark family, who own Miracle Strip, used to own a sight-seeing tower
on the beach across Front Beach Road from the park, with an observation
deck 185 feet up and a cafe at the bottom. That tower was torn down in
1994, and since then the resort city's tallest structures aside from hotels
and condominiums have been bungee towers.
Already O2 is earning Miracle Strip income. Wilkes arranged for
a local television newscast to place its "beach camera" atop the tower,
where it will broadcast scenes of the beach, with a Miracle Strip promo,
five times a day. "And they're paying me to do that," Wilkes said.
Emergency
invacuation
As parks revisit their emergency
response plans for next season, and keep the ramifications of September
11 firmly in mind, they would do well to heed the lessons learned by Waterworld
Safari in Phoenix, Arizona, on opening day last season.
In the minutes before the gates opened as General Manager Franceen Gonzales
was overseeing final preparations, a member of the catering service, whose
facilities sit at the back of the park, ran up with disturbing news: a
man wearing camouflage and carrying a rifle had been spotted crouching
in the bushes behind the park. "I got on the radio and called for radio
silence and said 'We believe there is somebody armed outside the park,'"
she said. Their emergency response plan went into effect. Local authorities
were notified, department managers moved employees into shelters and radios
remained silent except for one person broadcasting commands.
Then the situation worsened. Five armed and camouflaged men had now been
spotted in the desert shrubs. Tobin Leslie, the facility manager, observing
from one of the waterslide towers, saw the five stealing around the park's
perimeter toward the front gate, where hundreds of guests were already
lined up to enter the park. "So we now have to make a decision: do we
let the guests in?" Gonzales said. She did. "The last thing I need is
a bunch of sitting ducks up against our fence."
As the gates opened staff told guests the front section of the park was
not ready for use and shepherded everybody to the back of the park, where
lifeguards had quickly been dispatched to staff the wave pool. "The difficulty
was trying to get guests into the park without alarming them," Gonzales
said. "Once there's an alarm they may not be as cooperative."
Leslie, meanwhile, was now getting a closer look at the besiegers and
noticed one of the camouflaged men carrying a pouch full of paintballs.
"When we heard over the radio that they were playing paintball, there
was such a wave of relief," Gonzales said. Leslie apprehended the teen-age
paintballers and gave them a stern lecture, and when the police arrived
the teens received an even sterner lecture. "(The police) gave them a
good scare and we haven't seen them since," Gonzales said.
For Gonzales, this was the first time she had to make quick emergency
response decisions involving large numbers of people, both employees and
guests. Though the bulk of the emergency response plan worked, Gonzales
realized it needed some tweaking, especially in the method of handling
guests. "We had addressed getting guests out of the park in the event
of an emergency, not getting them into the park. That was a new twist."
Return
visits
The sale of Dutch Wonderland
in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Hershey
Entertainment and Resorts Company was finally concluded this month (THE
LOOP, May 4, 2001). The Hershey company formed a wholly owned
subsidiary, Wonderland Amusement Management LLC, to run the small family
amusement park. The long delay in the property's sale was caused by zoning
issues. Parcels of the park were zoned for commercial development, and
other parts for rural and farm use. Hershey wanted the East Lampeter Township
to zone the entire property C-2 commercial. The township did so on Friday,
November 9, Hershey and Murl Clark, Dutch Wonderland's former owner, closed
the sale on Monday, November 12, and the new management team, all Hersheypark
veterans, were on site November 13: Rick Stammel as general manager, Herb
Brooks as assistant general manager of operations and maintenance, and
Chris Barrett as assistant general manager of revenue and administration.
In
this issue
(To
go directly to a story, click on a blue keyword or phrase below):
More news out of the IAAPA Trade Show: prognosticators try to peer into 2002's murky future, we salute the industry's Andorran delegation which inspires us to pay tribute to Henk Bemboom, and Gerstlauer goes to school for a new ride.
Miracle Strip plans to take sightseers to thrilling heights.
A band of gunmen gives Waterworld Safari a scare.
Hershey finally closes the deal on Dutch Wonderland.
We watch Stone Mountain raise a Barn and the bar on interactive entertainment, and we expand our own frontiers with a little video interactivity in this issue of THE LOOP.
by Eric Minton
New Arrivals
Kids bagged points by sorting fruit at The Great Barn in Stone Mountain. Photo by Eric Minton
It's an interactive
barn!
Stone Mountain Park in Atlanta,
Georgia, announces the arrival of The Great Barn, November 23, 2001. Measurements:
12,873 square feet (3,900 square meters), four floors, four slides including
two 40 feet long (12 meters), 69 game consoles, 24 bugs, tools and machine
parts good for extra points, one scoreboard and 12,500 pieces of play
fruit. Delivered by SCS Interactive, Creative Kingdoms and Setpoint.
Despite near constant rain, Stone Mountain saw a 20 percent increase in attendance in the post-Thanksgiving weekend versus the same time frame last year. These numbers offer vital evidence that the Silver Dollar City company's first major installation at the state park will be a winner.
"It was pretty unbelievable to see the response," said Sonny Horton, Stone Mountain's director of marketing. He could credit a heavy publicity campaign that included direct mail to 75,000 households with children under age 12, but the interactive play center engendered such a response that even the reporters who covered the installation came back with family members over the weekend to play. "We got great word of mouth, a good buzz," Horton said. "The guy who answers our switchboard had 10 families call on Monday saying they had been to the Barn over the weekend and wanted to book birthday parties there."
The latest partnership between SDC and SCS (the park operators and play structure developers, respectively, who created the Treehouse for waterparks and Foam Factory for dry parks) puts guests inside a sort of video game. Wearing ID wristbands with which they digitally tally a score that flashes on a huge scoreboard in the center of the barn, patrons move from play console to console sorting foam-like plums, apples, oranges and peaches per instruction. They ascend the four-level playhouse via stairways or rope ramps, and they can descend down serpentine slides. On the ground floor, stalls house Delta Play foam animals (a horse, cow and a sow with five suckling piglets) and play structures for the toddlers, and on upper levels older kids and parents fired fruit out of SCS ball cannons. Mingling with the pfft-pfft-pfft of the air pump cannons was a soundtrack of crowing cocks and baaing lambs, plus the shrieks of laughter from the players.
Though the game is aimed at tweeners, and parents with younger children can take refuge in the foam-play stables, teens grasped the computer game concept of The Great Barn, and Stone Mountain staff were amazed at the involvement of adults. "We were finding that parents really got involved in the game," Horton said. "They were engaged. It's a real family-shared experience."
Children were the honored guests on opening day. A line of two dozen members of local Boys and Girls Clubs simultaneously cut the red ribbon and started a steady stream of patrons—15,000 in all—that ran unabated from before opening to after closing Friday through Sunday. Despite continuous showers, people waited in line for an average of 30 minutes, and as much as an hour, all day Friday. A group of street performers—two juggling farm clowns, a magician and a Southern Belle on 15-foot-high stilts (4.5 meters)—kept the queuers entertained. While parents held the spots in line, children played with the interactive elements outside The Great Barn, including hand pumps that squirt passersby, a double drinking fountain at cross-purposes (the left fountain's handle operates the right spigot), and a real moonshine still, confiscated by the state, now blowing bubbles.
SCS Interactive's Rick Briggs scored with his company's latest invention. Photo by Eric Minton
Eric’s Turn
Moved
to write
Many of my journalism colleagues would say we are in the wrong to mention
advertising in our editorial columns. However, we've accomplished a first
in this issue of THE LOOP via one of our advertisers, and most of you
understand and appreciate that as we navigate unchartered waters with
THE LOOP we share our adventures. In this our first year we have attempted
many firsts: first regularly scheduled on-line amusement trade newsletter,
first industry trade publication to incorporate sound in a story (May
4, 2001), which was also the first issue to continuously update
itself with a developing news story; first LOOP to be totally produced
and posted from the road (June
29, 2001); and first LOOP to be produced at a trade show (November
16, 2001).
This week's LOOP boasts being the first amusement trade publication to
incorporate moving pictures in an advertisement. Out of fairness to all
our sponsors, we won't mention the advertiser by name, but when you look
at the advertising buttons on this page you'll see which one clicks through
to a digital video of their product's impact. Special thanks to Jerry
Black of Gotcha! Digital Imagery for his help in pushing THE LOOP into,
what for us, is another technological frontier.
At the IAAPA Trade Show a few readers told me, unprompted, that they would
pay a subscription to continue receiving THE LOOP, but we are still dedicated,
at this time, to providing this newsletter at no charge to the amusement
and attractions industry. It is a key part of our mission to keep all
of you connected with each other. So, we continue to rely on advertising
to finance this endeavor.
We've also discovered through the course of our first year how dynamic
web advertising can be. Many of you no doubt have heard the horror tales
about dot-com advertising, but those failures came about because the advertisers
(and their web hosts) failed to appreciate how many dimensions web advertising
takes. Look at any one of our ads. They are, first and foremost, billboards
for our sponsors. Then, when you click your cursor on them they take you
to either a web site, a news announcement, or more involved advertising,
including, with this issue, video images. How odd that while the internet
is considered by many pundits as the worst medium for advertising, it
is considered by just as many—and often the same pundits—as
a company's most cost-effective marketing tool. Advertising and marketing
are not necessarily the same thing, but we are noticeably bridging the
gap that does exist between the two on the Web.
To that end we are embarking on yet another dimension with the "Enhanced
New Arrivals" package we introduced at IAAPA. For the first time, not
only will we provide an advertising link to companies involved in new
installations, we will become an extension of those companies' own web
sites. The program also is designed to generate the most valuable marketing
tool in this industry: buzz for a new product. For details on the program,
which kicks off in January, click here.
To check out other advertising opportunities in THE LOOP, click here.
Given the subject matter of this "Turn," I would like to take this opportunity
to thank all of the advertisers who purchased ads in THE LOOP in its inaugural
year, allowing us to continue on for year two: Active Info Systems, Sally
Corporation, SCS Interactive, Setpoint, Innovative Scenery & Design, The
Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company, Severn-Lamb USA, NaturEffects, Fowlkes
Norman and Associates, Fair Play, Komatsu Architecture, Scenery West,
Unlimited Snow, Casio, Try-It, Flying Colours, AIC, Syntegra and Pageantry
World. You can get descriptions and links for our primary advertisers
on our Connections
page.
To contact us here at THE LOOP, you can email me, eric@gettheloop.com,
or call, toll free 888-902-LOOP in North America, or 1-937-296-9796 elsewhere
in the world, or facsimile, 1-937-296-9790.