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Park Profile


FUN SPOT AMERICA


Together with venues like Old Town and Magical Midway, Central Florida’s two Fun Spot parks provide an affordable alternative to the big Orlando area theme parks. Located off International Drive, just a stone’s throw from the multi-million attendance Universal Orlando Resort, Fun Spot America entertains hundreds of thousands families each year. Now its owners are about to up the ante with a $20 million, 10-acre expansion which will triple the size of the five-acre park. Park World talks to Fun Spot Attractions owner and CEO John Arie Snr (pictured) to see what’s in store – including plans for Orlando’s first wooden coaster.


How did Fun Spot come to be? I started at a local go-kart park back in high school. After college, I worked at a seasonal park in Maryland, before opening a lawn mower shop. I added a small go-kart track to the shop and it did well. International Drive in Orlando was just getting started; it was the mid ’70s. I borrowed money from family and friends and opened Fun ’n Wheels in 1978. I sold it 10 years later, after a couple of expansions. As there was a non- compete clause, I went off and opened Fun Spot in Myrtle Beach and then Fun Spot in Virginia Beach, before selling each and returning to Orlando to open Fun Spot America in June 1998. We added Fun Spot USA in Kissimmee in 2007.


What is your annual attendance? Because we are free admission parks, it can be a challenge to get accurate numbers of the people who come into our park. Often with a family of four, the two kids may get all day armbands, while mom and dad may play a video game, get pizza or a coffee, or ride only one or two rides. Our best guesstimates, based on physical hand counts we do twice a year, are that we get about 450,000-500,000 in Orlando and then for Kissimmee park we get 650,000-700,000. We know we are getting over a million people into our parks. But in Orlando that makes you one of the smaller players!


How much do your rely on Universal and other neighbouring attractions for your trade? We are thankful for the “big three” of Orlando – Walt Disney World, Universal and SeaLife – for they have transformed this city. Harry Potter [at Universal] did a lot to increase traffic on International Drive. We saw some effect from it. People often choose Fun Spot on their second, third and fourth trips to Orlando, but because of our value, we often get a higher percentage of repeat customers than the big three.


What makes Fun Spot unique?


I would like to say it is the four US patents we have on our go-kart track designs, but I know it is our value for money and customer service that keeps people returning to Fun Spot. For fiveyears we were named by the Orlando Sentinel as the “Best Budget Attraction”. Our free admission means a great deal to families when only one or two of the people want to do the rides but the rest want to be with them. Plus you can pay for your rides one at a time. This “a la carte” method make us different from our big neighbours.


Why is now the right time for this expansion? In the past 10 years we have had growth each year, during the boom, during the recession. We proved we could be profitable regardless of the national economy. This will be the biggest investment we have ever done. It’s a huge risk for us, but I would like to think brighter days are ahead for the USA.


Was it difficult getting the land? Not at this moment in time. Land values have sharply decreased, so the 10 acres we purchased cost about a third of what they were only five years ago. The price was great, and the seller was eager. Getting the banks to do a short term note was the only tricky part.


The park regularly stays open until midnight


The little Orlando park with big plans!


How difficult is it competing with the big boys? We don’t compete with the big three, rather we try to complement them. By staying open until midnight, we are an option for families after they have left the large theme parks. While the big three do a great deal of national and international marketing to bring people to Orlando, we only do local advertising to reach people once they are here. We also pursue people who have purchased timeshares and vacation homes and are returning to Orlando on an almost yearly basis.


54


NOVEMBER 2012


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