Volume 2, No. 18. September 27, 2002
Trade Show Reports
Eyeing
Exponential growth
The amusement industry
as a whole may be struggling through tough economic times, but the International
Association for the Leisure and Entertainment Industry had reasons to be hopeful.
More precisely, the IALEI had figures to boost its hopes. Going into the organization’s
Fun Expo trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, last week, IALEI had a membership
roster closing in on 850. Of those, 250 were new members who joined the organization
over the past year, a 50 percent increase. Among the new members was the Cincinnati
Zoo and Botanical Garden, the association’s first zoo. Meanwhile, the 1
1/2-day “Rookies & Newcomers” workshop at the Fun Expo Academy
drew a record high 67 people, of which only two were already operating family
entertainment centers.
“Because of the economy, people are losing jobs at the high end of management
and are looking for something to get into,” said Jack Cohen, IALEI’s
new president and owner and president of Safari Sam’s family entertainment
center in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.
The family fun park sector had seen a similar influx of new development in the
1980s when many doctors, military officers and other skilled professionals opened
FEC’s as a post-retirement business. Within just a few years that boom
turned to bust as the demands of operating entertainment centers overwhelmed
the inexperienced owners.
IALEI’s academy is intended to stave off such another occurrence.
“One of our responsibilities to our membership is to make sure that doesn’t
happen again,” Cohen said. Randy White, CEO of White Hutchinson Leisure
& Learning Group and the moderator for the “Rookies & Newcomers”
session described his mission as “preventing road kill” in the industry.
“I had a guy come up to me and say, ‘You scared the hell out of me,’”
said Ken Vondriska, IALEI first vice president and chief operating officer of
International Theme Park Services, inc. “I said, ‘Good, I hope I scare
the hell out of everybody.'”
New operators can see plenty to frighten them off. Located in the metropolitan
Pittsburgh area, Cohen’s venue has suffered the effects of two of the city’s
major employers heading for bankruptcy. Sales increased in only one month since
last September. That upturn month was August, which gives Cohen cause to hope
the rise might continue.
Fun
Expo further provided him a rejuvenating tonic in the camaraderie of colleagues
and the sharing of business ideas, he said. “I can’t look on (the
economy) as an excuse. If I wait for the economy to turn around I might as well
close the door and go home. We have to find ways to bring people back so we
can entertain their families. I come to these seminars to talk to successful
people and see what they do.”
Even if entertainment centers, like amusement parks, have had a soft year, other
sectors of the small park industry are prospering. IALEI already represents
miniature golf operators, go kart tracks, bowling alleys, paintball operations
and sports centers. Now the association’s leadership is gearing up for
a membership drive targeted at other small-scale entertainment venues, such
as zoos, aquariums, museums, extreme sports attractions like skateboard parks
and BMX tracks. The association also wants to recruit small parks with annual
attendance of up to 400,000.
The key word, Vondriska said, is “small operators,” and he points
to the Cincinnati Zoo, where he was appointed director of ride operations last
month, as an example. “Zoos have rides and operations, sleepovers, food
service and retail, and many are getting into birthday parties. They are essentially
FEC’s with animals: the real, four-legged kind.”
For
a list of IALEI Golden Token winners, click
here.
©2002, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved