Volume 1, No. 22. November 30, 2001
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.
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.