Park News
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Text & Splash!
hidden zones for guests to find and win prizes. “Instead of being passive, our mobile activities make guests use their phones to activate and interact with each other in new ways,” explains Sommerland Sjælland owner Kåre Dyvekær. “Smaller parks need to be innovative if they are to stand tcompetition from the larger parks.”
Many amusement parks are already offer ticketing or other basic services via mobile phone, but a small park in Denmark had some much more fun and innovative activities available this summer for its phone-wielding guests.
Visitors to Sommerland Sjælland could control water cannons with their phones, feed goats and rabbits by SMS (text message), activate smoke on a train and various effects along the route by SMS, or download the park’s own app. Named the Fidy Guide, the app includes interactive maps, facts, games, offers and
Mikkel says Hello!
Former head of design at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Mikkel Sonne has launched his own company called Hello! Experience Design. Now based in Amsterdam, Sonne plans to use over 12 years of experience in the field to help attraction owners develop new themed experiences or breathe fresh life into older ones. “Themed attractions, like haircuts, clothing and computers, periodically need updates, or sometimes even extreme makeovers,” notes Sonne. “We believe in the ‘total experience,’ which includes sight, sound, touch, taste and, yes, even smell.”
www.hellodesigns.net
ASTM award for Mike Withers
Walt Disney Imagineering’s vice- president of ride engineering, Michael R Withers, has received the ASTM International Award of Merit and title of fellow from ASTM Committee F24 on Amusement Rides and Devices. The award is the highest recognition for individual contributions to ASTM’s activities.
According to Dyvekær, take-up of the technology is growing: “When we first started with Telesplash (water cannon via mobile remote control) back in 2005, only a few guests dared to try. Today thousands are using in particular our SMS activities and app.” Lots of activities cost just the price of an SMS while others, such as feeding the goats, are available for a small fee. “Within a few years,” says Dyvekær, “I believe that we will be able to make a ‘2 in 1’ park where one guest gets all the fun as usual and another, who is willing pay a little bit more, gets a bit ‘more’. As they move around with their phone, it will automatically open a secret way or a bigger track for the go-karts etc.” Located in the region of Odsherred on Zealand (about 55 miles west of Copenhagen), Sommerland Sjælland entertained 137,000 guests last year during its three-and-a-half month-long season.
www.sommerlandsj.dk Climbing high
As well as its various mobile phone innovations (see above), Denmark’s Sommerland Sjælland added a new high ropes course this season courtesy of Innovative Leisure/Ropes Courses International. The twin-level, seven pole Sky Trail Navigator course fits in well with the park’s other active offerings including canoeing, trampolining and a waterpark. “Our guests have given us fantastic feedback on the new attraction,” reveals park owner Kaare Dyvekær (pictured below). “It has confirmed to us that it was the right decision to choose something that provides a physical activity as opposed to a more passive experience in, for example, a rollercoaster. We have also seen an additional benefit, with sales in the adjacent food and beverage outlet rising significantly.”
www.innovativeleisure.co.uk
Mike Withers
A member of ASTM International since 2000, Withers was honoured for his outstanding leadership in the development and promotion of ASTM safety standards for the global amusement industry. Based in Glendale, California, he is an ASTM F24 board member, vice- chairman of Subcommittee F24.24 on Design and Manufacture and also works on several subcommittees.
SEPTEMBER 2011
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