Park People
parkworld-online.com
spending some time in the Middle East en-route to or from Asia or beyond.
Is the current format of an IAAPA Expo in Asia, Europe and an international show in the USA the right plan going forward? It’s still remote, but if in 10 years’ time or maybe a bit longer it came to a point where we were to host IAAPA Attractions Expo outside of the US, then I think it might be in our part of the world [Asia].
What parks or attractions have most inspired you during your travels with IAAPA in the past 12 months?
An Enchanted tale Mario Mamon has embrabced the
amusement industry since switching careers 18 years ago
from outside the United Arab Emirates. However, airlines such as Emirates are offering a great service at very reasonable prices and it really makes you think about switching from the legacy carriers and
The yardstick of course has always been Disney and Universal. I cannot single out one attraction from my recent travels, but every time I go to the family-owned parks in South America, in Europe and other parts of the world they impress the most because the decisions are coming faster, they are not hampered by shareholders and they are able to come up with a better experience for the guest.
iaapa.org
Mario Mamon decided to enter the amusement industry in the early 1990s after realising there were no theme parks in his native Philippines. “There were seasonal carnivals and events,” he notes, ”and they were always packed. So we decided to do go ahead and do a modest theme park.” After visiting his first IAAPA trade show in the United States, Mario made many industry contacts and appointed the initial designers and consultants for his park Enchanted Kingdom, located in Santa Rosa (about 30-45 minutes’ drive from central Manila). A masterplan was prepared by Gary Goddard at Landmark Entertainment and a pool of 35 local artists was brought on board to help realise theming on site. The park opened on 19 October 1995, with operations expertise provided by Dennis Speigel of International Theme Park Services. “The last 18 years really have been a rollercoaster ride for us,” says Mario. “I think the opening of our park spurred things on in the Philippines. Now as well as the carnivals, etc, we also have a lot of family entertainment centres. When we started there were other groups that
wanted to enter the industry, however there were a lot of challenges in a developing economy and eventually they decided they did not want to get their feet wet, so in terms of competition that has served us well until now.” After some financial challenges of its own a few years ago, Enchanted Kingdom was restructured and Mario’s wife Cynthia joined the team in a marketing capacity and now assists with day to day operations, allowing Mario to devote time to his duties with IAAPA. Now on a firm footing, the park is about to embark on an ambitious masterplan that will transform it into a destination resort, featuring a second gate waterpark, hotel and conference facilities. “We are expanding from 15 to almost 40 hectares,” reveals Mario. “The model that is popular now in Asia is the ‘integrated resort’ only we will not have any gaming; we want it to be more of a Disney model – for families. We have very supportive shareholders, but the next thing is to work out how much of the development we finance ourselves. It might make more sense to bring in joint venture partners for the hotel and other facilities, so we can focus on the theme park aspect.”
The masterplan is set to be implemented as a work in progress over the next five to 10 years. The goal, by the time it is complete, is to give guests more reasons to come back to Enchanted Kingdom. “The park will be redeveloped to handle more capacity, more themed zones will be added for the younger set and then we will have a nice retail and dining area,” says the boss. “Should you want to stay the weekend, there will be several hotels. There isn’t yet a convention facility south of metro Manila, so we will fill that gap, Lastly, in terms of access, we are looking at having our own entry and access from the highway.”
enchantedkingdom.ph 40 NOVEMBER 2013
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