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Efteling a new era Thorpe Park has
New boss, new coaster and new accommodation for famous Dutch park
Fourty-four-year-old Fons Jurgens is the new CEO and chairman of the board at Efteling, the famous Dutch theme park. His appointment was confirmed during a shareholders meeting on 17 April. He replaces Bart de Boer, who was shown the door last September after a five year-spell at the top. Jurgens previously served as chief marketing
New CEO Fons Jurgens
officer, and will retain those responsibilities as CEO. Now, however, he will also be challenged with growing annual attendance from 4 to 5 million and establishing Efteling as a more international destination. During the first phase, the park will
spend of €36 million on improvements including a new rollercoaster and an expansion of the Bosrijk holiday village.
“Efteling wants to maintain its position among Europe’s leading theme parks,” confirms Jurgens. “A steady increase in visitor numbers is therefore essential. This calls for continued investment. An important part of this approach is raising the quality of existing attractions and facilities.” Next summer the park near Tilburg will open a B&M Dive Machine.
Featuring a thrilling 37.5-metre drop, the coaster is expected to have teen appeal. Meanwhile the additions to Efteling Village Bosrijk, which calls for an additional 400 beds plus new cottages and apartments, are intended attract more attract more foreign visitors to spend several days at park. The first guests will be welcomed next summer.
Other new Efteling appointments include Coen Bertens, formerly adjunct director of operations, as operational director and member of the board. Berry Bemelmans steps down after 24 years as president of Efteling’s supervisory board, succeeded by Henk Kivits In addition, Saskia van Opijnen- Zwart and Heleen Dura-van Oord join the supervisory board. Van Opijnen- Zwart has held various executive positions, most recently as general Director at ArboVitale, while Dura-van Oord is co-founder of the DQ&A Media Group and a partner in the investment firm Peak Capital.
Prague’s battle of the wax
Compagnie des Alpes (CDA) opens a new celebrity waxwork attraction this month in Prague. The new Museé Grévin (
grevin-praha.com) follows the opening in 2013 of Grévin Montreal on Canada, CDA’s first waxwork museum outside France (the original outlet has been a Paris institution since the late 1800s). Figures on show in the Czech capital include replicas of Albert Einstein,
Franz Kafka, Barack Obama Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and George Clooney. The latter three characters also feature at Madame Tussauds Prague (
madametussauds.com/prague), a temporary exhibition opened by Merlin Entertainments last month at Wax Museum Prague in anticipation of Grévin’s arrival. Located on the same street – Celetná – Grévin Praha features six themed areas and a café. Admission is CZK430 ($21.70€15.70) for adults and CZK300 ($15.20/€10.90) for kids. Wax Musuem Prague is just CZK160/100. Is there room for both attractions, or will one be forced to melt down its exhibits and leave town?
10
appy Easter For a limited period last month, guests at Thorpe Park near London were invited to take part in a high tech Easter egg hunt to whet their appetite for the forthcoming Angry Birds Land, which opens at the end of this month. Over the Easter weekend, families were issued with a map and challenged to look for clues which would form a password. They could record their answers either on paper, or
on smartphone/tablet using an app developed by team-building company Wildgoose Events. Those that successfully identified the password were rewarded with a chocolate egg. “We thought that with so many people, especially youngsters, comfortable using apps on their phones it was the perfect alternative [to paper],” says Thorpe Park’s marketing director, Jane Willis. “We knew that Wildgoose Events would be able to provide us with the technology we needed. The feedback from winners was fantastic.” According to Wildgoose managing director Jonny Edser, apps such as this allow its clients to achieve a variety of goals including customer engagement, driving footfall, increasing spend, or simply a value added service. The company has now launched a dedicated website showcasing its treasure hunt apps.
Cowabunga Bay coming
this summer to Vegas! Troubled by delays that saw rival Wet ‘n’ Wild steal a march on opening last spring, Las Vegas waterpark Cowabunga Bay is now on course for opening this summer.
The $23 million park represents the first turnkey contract and largest US waterpark to date for Polin Waterparks & Pool Systems. Among its many attractions will be the Turkish company’s first Surf Safari waterslide. Marketed by the park as Wild Surf, it will feature a dizzying 55ft drop into the world's largest manmade parabolic “wave”.
Originally Cowabunga Bay's owners had planned to open the park on Memorial Day (late May) last year, but soon after ribbon cutting in December 2012 construction crews hit a layer of caliche, a naturally occurring sedimentary rock similar to concrete. Delivery of critical steel- support structures for the slides was also delayed. Since then the project has come under new ownership. Shane Huish, one of the waterpark’s original investors, will act as general manager, a position he currently holds at Cowabunga Bay in Draper, Utah.
MAY 2014
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