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Volume 1, No. 19. October 19, 2001
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Show business
Audiences at seminars were
sparse. Traffic in the exhibit hall aisles could be counted on two hands
for much of the two-afternoon trade show. For some vendors, hours went
by without a single visitor at their booths. World Waterpark Association
officials said that while overall attendance was down less than 14 percent
over their 200 show, attendance
among facility members was down 19 percent.
Yet, almost everyone was pleased. Organizers and vendors alike considered
the 21st Annual WWA Symposium and Trade Show in Orlando, Florida, last
week a success. True, many came into the show with low expectations, and
exceeding those expectations could have led to a relative sense of success.
However, several expressed optimism for the state of the industry based
on activity at the show. "(The year) 2002 will be a great year if any
business happens internationally," said David Orr, vice president of Amusement
Leisure Worldwide, who added that on the week of September 11 his company
sealed a half million dollars of new business. "Leisure and entertainment
is going to happen."
It may not happen in the industry's traditional venues, but this year's
edition of the WWA Show indicated more than any previous show that the
waterpark world is realigning in facility types, ownership and opportunities.
Municipalities continue to get into waterpark operations in increasing
numbers, and resorts have fully emerged as the next growth sector as more
hotels build indoor parks. Visionaries are also thinking smaller in terms
of venue scale, said Chuck Neuman, president of Water Technology. "Financing
may be an issue, insurance may be an issue, but overall people are optimistic,"
he said. "Right now we see a lot of options, and people are not giving
up."
Both Neuman and Orr said they did good business at last week's show. "We
got a number of projects," Neuman said. Said Orr: "We were busy the whole
time. We didn't quit. We had a good show, and that's not b.s." Their sentiments
were echoed by Michael Turner, director of sales and marketing for Gateway
Ticketing Systems. "Quantity was down, quality was up," he said. "We were
down dramatically on quantity of traffic, but I was impressed with the
quality. There are still projects on the table to be built, and I'm very
optimistic about our future."
Perhaps, too, the show proved that bigger is not always better, as far
as attendance. The general travel trepidations of the past few weeks on
top of the global economic sluggishness of the past two quarters forced
facilities to cut back on the number of people they sent to WWA. Consequently,
the shoppers who did trawl the trade show floor were truly serious buyers
and decision makers. Though they may have felt lonely at times, several
vendors expressed appreciation for not having to expend their energy and
time delivering their messages to a superfluous herd.
For a list of Hall of Fame
inductees and award winners at this year's WWA Symposium and Trade Show,
click here.
These see-creatures turned heads, but belly-flopped among some buyers at the WWA Show. Photo by Vicky Adams-Nemec
Oh,
WOW
The WWA inducted its second class of Hall of Fame members at last week's
show, with six men joining the 25 charter members named last year. That
keeps the grand total of women in the WWA Hall of Fame at one, Phyllis
Smith, who was inducted last year. That 30-to-1 ratio does not accurately
reflect the gender distribution of the association's membership, or of
the industry, and it certainly doesn't reflect waterpark patronage.
The WWA took the first steps toward redressing that imbalance with a seminar
devoted to women's issues in the industry. "Women in Water" expressed
in its title the double-entendre line women must tread while trying to
build careers as waterpark operators and suppliers. "A young female at
the WWA gets a lot of attention," said Franceen Gonzales, general manager
of Golfland/Sunsplash's Waterworld Safari in Phoenix, Arizona, and one
of the seminar's moderators. The kind of attention she was talking about
was the kind that two clamshell-clad mermaids were attracting as they
lounged in one of the vendor booths on the trade show floor—it had
nothing to do with professional respect or building business relationships.
"I never saw a glass ceiling in my profession, I never thought of this
as a male-dominated industry until I came to WWA," Gonzales said.
In the seminar, one of the top-drawing sessions of the week with about
50 attendees, women shared their frustrations over everything from dressing
in a way that balances professionalism and femininity to the lingering
sexist imagery that abounds in the industry. They also shared some avenues
to success, such as learning the technical aspects and terminology of
the business, sticking a foot into any door that opens to expand their
job skills and working for an enlightened boss who encourages their professional
development.
Out of that
last discussion emerged a new WWA-sponsored mentoring program to enhance
women's participation in the industry and the association in particular,
including the possibility of a scholarship fund to help pay women's way
to the convention. Every seminar participant signed up to either serve
as a mentor or to be mentored. The group, tentatively calling itself Women
of Water (WOW) also decided to continue the discussions at future WWA
conventions.
An even more significant outcome of the meeting was the tone of how these
women plan to address the issues that concern them: through professional
interaction rather than reactionary radicalism. Or, put another way, the
vendor using the mermaids lost quite a bit of potential business in that
room.
Turner
and turn again
Early in a video parade through the late Al Turner's life, a photo of
a pre-school Al sitting in a backyard, inflatable wade pool provoked an
appreciative chuckle from the audience at Thursday's general session.
With Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's soulful acoustic medley of "Somewhere Over
The Rainbow" and "What A Wonderful World" serving as the soundtrack, Turner's
career and contributions played out in the images of the WWA founder posing
with amusement industry leaders, visiting with Arab operators and playing
air guitar with a crutch. The tribute left members of the audience simultaneously
wiping away tears and applauding. With the general session tribute and
a toast at the Big Al's Beach Party that night at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon,
Turner was remembered with more humor than grief in keeping with the casual,
fun atmosphere Al himself insisted should be the prevailing spirit of
the WWA's annual trade show.
Notably, the week's activities and attitudes proved that Turner's passing
last April did not create a power vacuum at the top of the WWA. Among
Board Chairman Terry Turner (no relation to Al), new CEO and President
Rick Root and Executive Vice President Dave Bruschi, direction was very
much in evidence at the WWA. If last week's symposium had an underlying
theme it would have been "same vision, new glasses" as the association
set about establishing the second generation of leadership. And any notion
that the WWA would die with Al's death was put to rest by the news that
the 2002 show had already been scheduled for Las Vegas October 7-11. Such
a winning convergence of locale and date suggests the WWA is not playing
the trade show game on whims, as appeared the case with the choices of
Santa Clara, California, in 1999 and Orlando this year.
Still, Al left more than a legacy with the WWA. Near the end of the video
tribute appeared the picture of a piece of notepaper bearing Al's handwriting,
a selection of some of his poetry. This one he wrote for the occasion
of the trade show four years ago:
- All I did was get people
- Who thought they were enemies
- To become friends—
- But,
- To keep your friends
- From becoming enemies again
- Is far more difficult.
- Who thought they were enemies
Heady haunts
If the size of the crowds packed
into Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, for Horror Nights Saturday
evening were any indication, this is shaping up to be a solid Halloween
season for parks. In a city largely empty of tourists—where International
Drive hotels were offering rooms for $49, and queues were just 15 minutes
long for the top rides at the big theme parks—the streets of Universal
Studios were filled wall-to-wall with pedestrians, and queues to go through
the haunted mazes and rides lengthened to 80 minutes. According to one
man working security, the crowds on this mid-month night were the size
the park usually sees closer to Halloween.
Other parks also are reporting good turnouts this Halloween. Perhaps with
good reason. Combine the season's penchant to induce creativity with the
theming and scheming minds working at amusement parks and zoos, and you
have the kind of product patrons want to come out for, no matter the economic
conditions or the national mood. Following are accounts of three such
products advancing the Halloween season as a thriving entertainment franchise.
High road to haunting
Paramount's Kings Dominion
in Doswell, Virginia, was not trying to break new ground when it set about
building haunted attractions for its Fear Fest this month. But, right
in the middle of the location chosen for the park's Halloween-themed shoulder
season sat the Blue Ridge Tollway, a Tin Lizzy ride. With the roadway
coursing through woods and hills, designers decided to make the antique
cars one of Fear Fest's scary mazes.
Hence, Blue Ridge Bloodbath, a marriage of the traditional dark
ride with the new-flavored haunted maze, and perhaps the most singular
Tin Lizzy experience ever. "It really exceeded our expectations," said
Joe Holtman, producer at Paramount Parks Design and Entertainment. "We
did not know how it would come out when we were developing it, and we
were wondering would it really work," he said. "It turned out that it
does work."
The 350-foot-long (106-meter-long) Blue Ridge Tollway uses replica
1917 Model T Fords that the Fear Fest designers enhanced only with a skull
covering the hood ornament. They used hay bales, muslin and corn stalks
to create blinders throughout the course, obstructing riders' view of
upcoming scenes and scares. The addition of a spooky soundtrack with speakers
placed around the course, gloomy lighting, fog and eight actors gave Kings
Dominion a classic haunted maze, except that guests ride antique cars
instead of walking.
Operational obstacles were easily overcome. The ride's terrain made placement
of blinders easier than Holtman anticipated. Another issue is the mode
of transportation itself, in which the frequently frightened guest must
continuously accelerate the car through the ride. Varying speeds of cars
could interfere with the actors' timing, too. The timing issue was solved
by the dispatcher using a stopwatch to space the cars out every 30 seconds.
As for varying speeds among drivers, Holtman said the guests self-police
themselves. "We tell them in the station to keep their foot on the pedal
throughout the ride," he said. "They understand that for them to get the
scare potential, they have to follow the guidelines we give them." Besides,
some riders couldn't get enough speed out of the trundling T's to escape
some of the frights.
With Fear Fest's overall PG-13 rating, the Tin Lizzies got a rare workout
from teen-age guests rather than young children. "You did see the teens
really enjoying it, and that we really scared them," Holtman said. "They
were enjoying Blue Ridge Bloodbath as much as the mazes."
Knott's gave Elvira fans a room with a view. Photo courtesy of Knott's Berry Farm
Suite nightmares
What many professional haunters
consider the best Halloween practitioner in the industry, Knott's Berry
Farm in Buena Park, California, is making its 29th Halloween Haunt a destination
in its own right. This year the park is going way upscale with a hotel
package—or, in keeping with the theme, way downscale.
The hotel suite, you see, is arguably the tackiest you will find anywhere.
At $999 per night, it also will cost you dear. But it comes with Elvira,
so to speak, and therein lies its appeal.
With the addition two years ago of the adjacent Radisson Resort hotel,
Knott's Berry Farm has been able to do cross-promotions, not only for
the whole year (with 16 themed Snoopy rooms) but for its October-long
transformation into Knott's Scary Farm. Last year the park offered a couple
of October packages: Bare Bones that included an overnight stay and tickets
to Knott's Scary Farm ($159 for two people) and Haunted Dreams ($219)
added a T-shirt and dinner.
The initial success of those packages prompted Knott's officials to expand
the program, and they latched on to the idea of developing a partnership
with that other horror icon, Elvira, who has performed intermittently
at Knott's Scary Farm for 14 years. Said Susan Tierney, Knott's director
of public relations: "We drew a rendition of the room and gave it to her
to look at, and she thought it was great."
She would. "Elvira's Chamber" is all red and black velvet bedspreads and
curtains, with ornate pillows on the bed and a headstand that looks like
it outlasted a Victorian funeral home. The room is further appointed with
candelabra, funereal flowers and a couple of skulls. Any couple renting
the "Mistress of the Park's" suite (the hotel has only one) also gets
tickets to the park, dinner, a gift basket of Halloween goodies, VIM passes
(Very Important Monsters) that allow them to go to the front of the hour-long
queues at the 10 mazes, and a meeting with Elvira herself, whose show
celebrating the character's 20th anniversary ("Elvira At 20: Almost Legal")
is one of Knott's Scary Farm's six new shows this year.
Could all that really be worth $999? Well, that VIM alone would appeal
to a lot of Knott's Scary Farm fans. The only other way the general public
can get the reduced-waiting privilege is to indulge in another hotel package
Knott's is offering this year, the Gruesome Getaway which includes everything
guests would get with the Haunted Dreams package plus the VIM. That one
costs $499. You do the math on how much meeting Elvira is worth.
"There are a lot of Elvira fans out there, and a lot of Elvira fans are
Halloween Haunt fans," Tierney said. The package was first unveiled to
the public on July 13—note, that was a Friday the 13th—when
Elvira herself checked into her own suite. Within a week the park sold
four nights, and as the Haunt began the first of this month, more than
half the available nights had been booked, Tierney said. "I can say we
certainly are pleasantly surprised with how well it was received."
Techno-phobia
The Halloween bug has bitten
the museum world, as well. The Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in
Tampa, Florida, uses the haunted holiday as a theme for one of its camp-ins,
a program of science lessons that includes family sleep-overs in the museum's
galleries.
The challenge for the institution is to come up with a program that incorporates
Halloween fun with science education. Creepy-Crawly Camp-In, which begins
at 6:30 p.m. (18,30) October 27 and concludes at 10 a.m. (10,00) the next
day, will focus on caves and bats, obvious horror fare. The evening will
include bat experts bringing samples of species to the museum, the IMAX
film Journey Into The Amazing Caves and a craft session in which
participants can make their own bats.
The evening will also include a hike through MOSI's Back Woods which,
for this occasion, will turn into a Haunted Woods Hike. "Nothing too scary,
because we have 6- and 7- year-olds; nothing like the chain saw coming
out of the woods," said Sonya Rose, MOSI's extended programs manager and
the woman who creates these camp-in programs. Rather, as the hike leader
talks about some of the animals living in the woods, such as frogs, a
soundtrack begins playing "ribbets" and a staff member wearing a frog
costume will hop out of the darkness past the group. Later the campers
will participate in the Scars and Bruises workshop to learn how to apply
latex makeup and mix fake blood and slime. "It's a lesson in the chemistry
behind Halloween," Rose said.
Rose is constantly coming up with new themes and activities every Halloween
because many families return for the camp-ins. "It seems like we have
the same families come year after year," she said. But she's also getting
more families each year for her Halloween events. "When we started in
1999, we had maybe 20 people," she said. "Now we're averaging 50 or 60
total family members."
Legendary
efforts
When Holiday World & Splashin' Safari broke ground on a new enclosed family
raft ride two weeks ago (THE
LOOP, October 5, 2001), the park was not finished announcing upgrades
for next year. Last week another significant capital improvement project
leaked from the Santa Claus, Indiana, park: doubling capacity on The
Legend wooden roller coaster by replacing the single Gerstlauer train
with two Philadelphia Toboggan Company trains.
While adding a train to The Legend should cut the amount of queue
time in a park that markets itself as a "no-long-lines" theme park, the
choice of two new PTC trains rather than a second Gerstlauer points to
a key marketing strategy Holiday World has used since the opening of The
Raven wood coaster in 1995. A brilliant piece of coastering by Custom
Coasters International, The Raven failed to garner appropriate
appreciation among locals. The typical comment park staff heard: "It's
a great ride for a park like Holiday World, but it's no (Disney, Busch
Gardens, Paramount's, Six Flags)."
The Koch family, the park's owners, set out to prove The Raven
was a great coaster, period, and they did that by actively soliciting
ridership from coaster enthusiasts. The subsequent relationship between
Holiday World and coaster fans paid off. Television commercials show American
Coaster Enthusiasts Public Relations Director David Escalante "coming
all the way from California" to ride Holiday World's coasters, and The
Raven attained the number one rating among the world's woodies in
the Amusement Today Golden Ticket Award in August. The newspaper's editor
and publisher, Gary Slade, even announced the award winners at a press
conference in Holiday World.
The Legend settled in at Number 5 on Golden Ticket's list, and
Will Koch, Holiday World's president and general manager, heard too often
from enthusiasts that it would be their favorite coaster if only it had
PTC trains. That was key to Koch's decision to take on the added expense
of two PTC's versus one more Gerstlauer, and he's unabashed in admitting
that topping the rankings matters. "It would be kind of neat to have a
one-two punch in Amusement Today," he said. "Those rankings are very important
to us. We educated our local consumers about those Amusement Today rankings
and how well we do on those things."
Despite the upgrades to The Legend, Koch said the park's marketing
push for next year still will be the $1.7 million ZOOMbabwe family
raft slide in Splashin' Safari. However, you can count on Holiday World
getting enthusiasts to return to try out the "new" Legend in hopes
that the park will get a double-golden moment next August.
For a full account of Holiday World's 2002 capital improvement plans,
see the November issue of Amusement
Today.
In
this issue
(To
go directly to a story, click on a blue keyword or phrase below):
An optimistic forecast emerges from the World Waterpark Association Show, which said goodbye to Al Turner while waterpark women issued a resounding 'Hello!'
On the Halloween front, Paramount's Kings Dominion goes Christine with its Tin Lizzies, Knott's Scary Farm finds an inviting bedfellow in Elvira, and Tampa's MOSI puts guests to sleep with some scary science.
Holiday World won't let up, providing us a lesson in national marketing for local patronage.
We welcome a Komodo exhibit to the Los Angeles Zoo, minus a Komodo, and we help you prep for some heavy duty trade show shopping with web-site links to suppliers and a guide to buying by Allen F. Weitzel.
by Eric Minton
Do a little shopping before you go to IAAPA. Click on the logos below to see what vendors have to offer this year. For a complete list of exhibitors, click here.
Booths 1036 and 9525
Booth 3953
Booth 1817
Booth 3825
Booth 7879
Booth 6466
Booth 2833
Booth 4289
New Arrivals
It's a
Komodo exhibit!
The Los Angeles Zoo in California announces the arrival of Dragons
of Komodo, October 11, 2001. Measurements: Three habitats totalling
1,488 square feet (451 square meters), two dragons. Delivered by Masonry/Rockatecture
Inc., and the Los Angeles Zoo's Construction Division.
"Build it and they will come," but not Komo the Komodo. One half of the
LA Zoo's pair of dragons, Komo, didn't make it to the ceremonial opening
of his new home because he had fractured his front, left leg about a week
before, apparently while exploring the new habitat prior to the public
unveiling. Komo is being kept in a confined space off-view to let the
bone heal. Meanwhile, his fellow Komodo, Modo, did bask in the glory of
media attention—or, at least, he basked in the sunlight in the exhibit's
common-space—when Zoo Director Manual A. Mollinedo, Zoo Commission
President Susan Mazzarella and donor Myra Wildhorn cut the ribbon on the
$450,000 themed exhibit.
The two male, 3-year-old dragons had outgrown their window exhibit in
the Reptile House. So the zoo turned an un-used roundhouse in the Australian
section into an exhibit hall dedicated to the Komodos featuring authentic
Bali statues and a thatch-roofed, hand-carved wood entryway painted in
gold, red and green to replicate the Indonesian homeland of these reptiles.
The habitat itself is U-shaped
and divided into three sections. On one side is Komo's territory designed
as the mud banks of Komodo Island's coast. In the other wing resides Modo,
whose room looks like a lush bamboo forest. Each individual habitat is
525 square feet (159 square meters), and they are joined at one end by
a 438-square-foot (133-square-meter) common room covered in mesh to allow
natural sunlight in. The habitats feature murals depicting the Komodos'
natural habitat painted by Senior Animal Keeper Ian Recchio.
The explorative Komo, though, has already prompted a change in the interior
design of his habitat. Keepers suspect he climbed up artificial stonework
to explore a skylight and broke his leg while descending, so they have
removed one of the rocks to keep Komo from hurting himself again.
Photo courtesy frontiervillage.net
Word-slinger
As we gear up for that really big show next month, the IAAPA Trade Show
in Orlando November 10-17, we've called on Allen F. Weitzel to give us
some guidelines on the tricky business of merchandising. Allen's article,
Managing the
Merchandise Monster, appears in the Reading Room.
Allen has been a frequent contributor to the Reading Room since the inception
of THE LOOP in its internet form back in February. He's also been a long-time
contributor to this industry. That's him above back in 1967 as a dashing
sheriff at Frontier Village Amusement Park in San Jose, California. The
park is long gone, but Allen has continued a successful and varied career
in the amusement industry, working at parks and other amusement venues
around the San Francisco Bay area and Northern California.
That experience
is evident in his stories for THE LOOP. For us he has written about working
with inspectors, about writing manuals, about developing a safety program,
about training. One of the stated missions of THE LOOP is to provide information
and insights to help park operators run their venues more efficiently,
safely and profitably. That has been Allen's mission over the years, too,
and we're fortunate to have him on board here at THE LOOP.
Another of our stated missions is to provide a connection for people throughout
the amusement industry. Personally, I always have been most impressed
with the collegial spirit that pervades the trade shows, as competing
exhibitors share laughs in the hotel lounges and competing park operators
share successful tactics and lingering problems while sitting side-by-
side in seminars. And everybody mingles business and camaraderie on the
trade show floor.
Here at THE LOOP we are trying to supplement that spirit with our global
reach and our ability to, literally, link suppliers with buyers. Though
our special IAAPA Show issue won't post until November 2, we have started
running links, at the top of this column, to suppliers' web sites, allowing
you to check out their products and services in advance of hitting the
trade show floor. You can also use these links to establish contacts and
set up meetings during the convention. Just click on their logos to go
straight to their pages. We have also posted two exhibitors' lists for
the IAAPA show: to see the vendors listed in alphabetical order click
here,
and to see the vendors listed numerically by booth number click here.
The linking logos above are paid advertisements, and you suppliers still
have time to get yours in the special IAAPA Show issue by contacting our
advertising manager, Lynne Mosman, via e-mail (lynne@gettheloop.com),
or toll-free 866-902-LOOP (outside North America, call 1 937-294-3406).