Park People
parkworld-online.com Q Lines Igor Rodionov RAAPA
Altough there are many municipal amusement parks and family entertainment centres throughout Russia, the world’s largest country has still to welcome its first major theme park. Yet momentum is building. Several large resort-based projects have been announced in recent months, with big names such as Universal and DreamWorks putting their hat into the ring alongside proposed projects promising to integrate elements of Russian culture and folklore. Park World talks to Russian Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions first- vice president Igor Rodionov (pictured) to discover why Russia looks like a becoming one of the industry’s hot spots.
There are at least three major theme park resorts proposed for the Moscow area. Do you believe all three will happen, and are you aware of any more? There is a very close attention to Russia nowadays from entertainment industry professionals, including foreign ones. Most often they talk about "Russia Park” in Domodedovo or Universal Studios in Moscow itself. Now it is difficult to say exactly when these projects will be implemented. "Russia Park” presupposes the construction of a miniature park, amusement park, safari park etc. I think the first of these zones will be implemented in the coming years, as the “Russia in miniature” idea has been discussed for a long time and has good governmental support. The Universal park is a private project. Its full implementation is scheduled for 2019, but construction has not started yet. As in any other country, there are difficulties in Russia, so only the most patient and persistent will manage to do it.
Will the “resort” model work? In my opinion, it is high time to build a large theme park resort in Russia. Taking into consideration the climate, the mentality of people in Russia, welfare, etc, the large tourist centres of Moscow, St Petersburg and Sochi are the most suitable places where this kind of park will work.
Other than Sochi Park and the proposed DreamWorks projects, what other proposed parks and attractions are you aware of around the country?
In many cities today the reconstruction of amusement parks is taking place, new indoor family entertainment centres are opening, and attractions with modern equipment are appearing. Amongst other projects currently scheduled to open in Russia are Angry Birds Activity Parks and KidZania.
The VVTs park in Moscow 22
How important is it that Russia develops its own park brands and concepts? Both the branded parks like Disneyland and Universal and the locally-themed parks can be popular in Russia. The Disney characters are popular worldwide, and Russia is no exception, but there is also a very rich heritage of Russian fairytales and folklore that children know and love from childhood, including the literary works of Pushkin, Aksakov and Ershov. Characters such as Baba Yaga, Kashchei Bessmertny, Vasilisa the Wise and the Little Humpbacked Horse offer very wide potential. We already have small amusement parks in Saratov, Voronezh and other cities devoted to these subjects, but now it is important to revive these characters and build a large
Russian theme park dedicated to Russian characters. That really would be a fairytale come true.
Until now a lot of Russian attractions have been family entertainment centres or smaller municipal parks. Why do you believe all this development (or talk of development) is happening now? I think this is because the city authorities are aware of the important role that amusement parks play in the social and cultural life of the society. The more we urbanise and the less free time people have, so it is necessary to create conditions for high quality and comfortable relaxation, and amusement parks are ideally suited for this.
What is the current state of Russia’s parks and attractions industry?
There are currently about 600 outdoor amusement parks in Russia today. Most of them (around 85%) have municipal, publicly-owned status, but over the last three years a lot have become autonomous institutions, that is they remain mainly municipal-owned, but can operate themselves without any direct input from the authorities. There are still only a few very large amusement parks, but there are some such as the park at the All-Russian Exhibition
Centre (VVTs) and Gorky Park in Moscow, Riviera Park in Sochi and St Petersburg’s Divo-Island. Family entertainment centres (FECs) are very actively developing. Each year several new large indoor facilities open. The most famous among them are the Happylon chain in St Petersburg, Krasnodar, Sochi, Surgut and two outlets in Moscow. Other large private operations that work very well include Cosmic and Fun City. In the 1990s the amusement parks were in ruins, mainly because they had no “owner”, and weren’t seen as belonging to anyone. Now they can develop autonomously there have been a lot of new rides purchased, etc. While many well-known foreign companies are active in the Russian market, the manufacture of amusement rides has also improved significantly within the country, and today almost all kinds of entertainment equipment are manufactured here. The annual RAAPA Expo, where all these novelties are exhibited, facilitates a lot of business for both the Russian and international suppliers.
What are the biggest challenges to new park development? Legislation, weather, spending power and other factors all influence the development of new parks to some degree, but I should say nowadays in Russia there are places and opportunities to create
MARCH 2013
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