Front Gate
www.parkworld-online.com
BigQuestion
To what extent do local parks and attractions influence your choice of holiday/vacation destination?
Sue Kemp, Legoland Windsor, England: My holidays are focused around my 10-year old daughter and what she loves doing; she’s a bit of a daredevil and so we have to go somewhere very exciting. Theme parks can deliver that, but it won’t be the only thing we go for. She’s an amazing climber and loves swimming, but she does loves her big rollercoasters too.
Andreas Andersen, Liseberg, Sweden: My partner would answer “way too much”! I always end up spending one or two days at parks and usually consider this before booking a trip. I get bored at the beach, am not much of a shopper, and there is a limit to the number of castles and churches you want to visit on a holiday. The same does not – unfortunately, according to my partner – apply to rollercoasters...
Julie Lyons, Santa’s Land, USA: The local parks and attractions in my area are awesome and make it possible for me to stay right here during long weekends off, instead of having to plan an expensive trip far away. We also love visiting the Smoky Mountain Gold and Ruby Mine to get our gem mining and gold panning fix. Of course we love the beach, and have to plan that at least once a year as well, but we love our local attractions. The nostalgia of Cherokee and the Great Smoky Mountains never gets old, so we really don't feel like we have to run off far for a vacation.
Iain Hawkins, Blackpool Tower/Sea Life/Madame Tussauds, UK: I’ve just booked my honeymoon for next March. We are going to Las Vegas for the first part of the trip and I’ve already told my wife to be that we will be going to Madame Tussauds out there. I thought I would get shot for suggesting it but I think she’s now like, “I can’t be bothered anymore.” If I go to Florida, then I will want to see what the competitors are doing too. One of the saddest things I do when I go on holiday and look at other attractions, and I can’t believe I am telling you this, is inspect the floor coverings. When you are building new attractions it is actually quite useful to know what kind of floor finishes there are, so that guests feel like there are somewhere else when they walk into an attraction.
Want to provide a “Big Answer”? E-mail
parkworld@btopenworld.com and we’ll give you the next question
Figures of Fun
2
per cent – year-on-year revenue increase at Cedar Fair parks across North America up to the Fourth of July holiday weekend
5
per cent – year-on-year second quarter revenue increase at Six Flags parks across North America
34
shades of white used at Walt Disney World in Florida
121
degrees – angle of first drop on Takabishi at Fuji-Q HighLand in Japan – a new world record
100,000
attendance increase (to 1.3 million) during first three months of the season at Liseberg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Produced in association with AECOM.
www.aecom.com/economics
Ups & Downs
Toilet Trauma New York City's parks
commissioner Adrian Benepe has ended the rationing of toilet paper at Coney Island
Swedish Success The turnstiles are red hot at parks throughout Sweden, including Astrid Lindgren’s World which celebrated its busiest ever June, Liseberg where attendance is up by six figures, and Parks & Resorts Scandinavia which is on course for a record year across the group
Coaster Wars A Cedar Point spokesman has questioned Six Flags Magic Mountain’s claims to have a world record 18 coasters (one more than Cedar Point), claiming Superman: Escape from Krypton is a freefall ride
Falling Star A 30-year-old man working on the Star Flyer ride at the Magic Midway in Orlando fell to his death while performing routine maintenance in July
Scenic Secure The Scenic Railway in Margate, England, has been upgraded from Grade II to Grade II* listed status, placing the 90-year-old wooden coaster under increased protection
6
AUGUST 2011
24 26 28 50
32 20 3841
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40