Mark
Fisher
Having had his first taste of the theme park and visitor attractions industry at the age of 16, dressed as a bear as an entertainer at the UK’s Alton Towers, Mark Fisher is today managing director of the Resort Theme Parks Operating Group for the world’s No. 2 visitor attractions operator, Merlin Entertainments, in which position he is responsible for some of the UK’s and Europe’s best known parks - Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventures and Thorpe Park in the UK; Gardaland in Italy; and Heide Park in Germany. Here he talks with InterPark Editor Andrew Mellor about a range of industry related topics, including consolidation, government funding, the economic climate and Merlin’s future growth plans
IP: What do you feel have been the most significant changes and developments in the theme park industry in the past five years, and the wider visitor attractions industry in general?
MF: Undoubtedly the consolidation of businesses has been the most significant driver in the industry over recent years. This has also meant that many attractions previously run by other, more general businesses are now owned and managed by a smaller number of specialist operators such as Merlin Entertainments. Secondly and very positively this has resulted in a significant uplift in the quality of attractions offer across the world, lead by increased and continuous investment by the best companies across all aspects of their business. The third, and closely linked change, is much greater emphasis on and investment in, improving the level of customer service. Guests are rightly much more demanding and the enjoyment and value they put on their visit relies on a host of factors - from the quality of the loos and helpfulness of the staff, to how well the attraction delivers against its promise. At Merlin, for example, we ask our visitors their views every day via written/touch screen questionnaires and this is monitored for every attraction on a weekly basis, with an expectation of positive scores of over 90 per cent. Indeed
Open to Question
we take it so seriously we have a dedicated product excellence director at board Level, as well as product excellence managers at key attractions. As a result we have invested heavily in improving the quality of our overall infrastructure and procedures in every business. Additionally, other developments have been the emergence of destination resorts – linking together theme parks, second gate, attractions hotels and other accommodation to encourage guests to extend their visits from one to two or three days. Our own Heide Park, Alton Towers and Gardaland Resorts are excellent examples of this. And finally, the increased availability and development of high quality, short stay, two/three hour city centre attractions, particularly those with very clear propositions, which are ‘chainable’ and can work across borders like Merlin’s own Madame Tussauds, SEA LIFE and LEGOLAND Discovery Centres.
IP: What are the park industry’s biggest challenges at the present time?
MF: Clearly the global economic outlook is the biggest challenge facing the sector. We still have a long way to go before the full depth of the fall out from the crash is evident and we know the real impact this may have on
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