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A new leader has been chosen at the State Fair of Texas to replace retiring president Errol McKoy. Mitchell Glieber joined the State Fair in 1999, spending the majority of his time working with corporate partners and more than tripling sponsorship revenue. Prior to that he spent nearly a decade with the Dallas Mavericks marketing team. The 2014 State Fair of Texas operates from 26 September to 19 October. After a trial run last year, the State Fair grounds will no longer be operated as a summer amusement park in 2014.
Kids’ TV marketing expert Clare Wiggins is the new global brand marketing manager for Merlin Entertainments’ Sea Life aquarium chain. The former Basil Brush brand manager spent five years at Classic Media before taking up the role at Merlin’s head office in her home county of Dorset, England. With 45 Sea Life centres on four continents, however, Claire is unlikely to be spending much time at her desk.
Darien Lake amusement park, Darien Center, New York, welcomes a new vice-president and general manager in the shape of Rod Rankin. Boasting more than three decades’ experience managing amusement parks and attractions across the US, his previous position was at another Herschend Family Entertainment park, Elitch Gardens in Denver, Colorado. Rankin succeeds Bob Montgomery, who has moved to his native Canada to pursue new opportunities.
After 32 years of service, Jan Sherman (pictured) has retired as assistant vice-president and creative director at Sally Corporation. “Over the years Jan has been challenged to make hound dog and bear bands come alive, create soundtracks and scripts that melt the hearts of young and old alike, and manage Sally’s ever changing advertising programme,” notes Sally chairman and CEO, John Wood. “She has been a consummate professional who never failed to deliver a quality product on schedule.” Meanwhile Lauren Weaver (neé Wood) will now assume the role of Sally’s marketing director. She joined the dark ride and animatronics company in 2008 as a member of its business development team.
Dutch Wonderland, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has announced five personnel changes. Jim Bowe joins the team as a maintenance director after serving as a safety consultant. Former maintenance director Tom Whittington take up a new position as campground director. After holding a seasonal maintenance position at the park, Mark Lariviere has been brought on board full time as a maintenance mechanic. Adam Gardner is Dutch Wonderland’s new safety and security manager after four years in a seasonal post. Meanwhile Allyson Weaver joins the team as full time marketing specialist after serving as an intern for the past year.
Russian-born Natalia Bakhlina has joined London-based consultancy Leisure Development Partners (LDP) as a partner. As a former associate director at AECOM Economics she completed a wide range of leisure and attraction assignments including feasibility studies and economic impact analyses for theme parks, waterparks, family entertainment centres and other destinations.
Amin Rashmani is the new director of business development for the Middle East and North Africa at Thinkwell. Fluent in Arabic, English and French, prior joining the experiential design firm he served as managing director of Water Technology’s Dubai office and has also worked at several UAE waterparks. Headquartered in Burbank, California, Thinkwell plans to establish an office soon in Abu Dhabi.
Gateway Ticketing Systems UK has announced Bill Foster as a new project manager. Gateway set up its UK office, overseen by Andy Povey, in autumn 2012 and Bill joins after more than a decade at Ticketmaster.
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Kernels
England’s Adventure Island, Southend-on-Sea, has introduced a new “Wear Your Shirt” policy. “In recent years, we’ve seen increasing numbers of lads and men whipping their tops off, eager to make the most of the sun,” says the park’s managing director Marc Miller. “That’s absolutely fine in the right environment, but we try very hard to be a family-focused business and not everybody is a fan of bare chests!” Given that Adventure Island has previously hosted naked rollercoaster rides and adventure golf fundraising/PR efforts, perhaps management should be relieved it is only their shirts men have been removing.
Merlin Entertainments has revealed more details of its first Dungeon attraction in North America, which opens his summer. The San Francisco Dungeon will be located in the city’s historic Fisherman’s Wharf district, where it will appear alongside the former Wax Museum, which Merlin is relaunching at Madame Tussauds. Centred on the rich history of the area, the 60-minute walk-through experience will combine fun education and edge-of-your seat live performance. Nine actor-led shows together with an underground boat ride will make visitors laugh and jump as they learn more about stories highlighting the “underbelly” of the city’s history, with tales of Shanghai Kelly, Miss Piggott’s Saloon, Gangs of San Francisco and Alcatraz. Merlin already operates Dungeon attractions in European locations including Blackpool, Edinburgh, London, York, Warwick, Amsterdam, Berlin and Hamburg.
The seasonal Swedish park Skara Sommarland kicks off its 30th anniversary season next month with the opening of a new water attraction. Cobra is a 116m-long Tornado Wave by ProSlide accommodating up to 500 guests an hour in four-person “cloverleaf’ rafts. Last year Skara added a 82m ProSlide speed slide featuring a Big Drop launch capsule. The park in Axvall will also resume its concert programme this year. The season starts 6 June.
Puy du Fou, the French park famous for its live entertainment spectaculars, was France’s best-attended non-Disney theme park in 2013, overtaking Parc Astérix and Futuroscope which previously beat it by over 100,000 guests each. Located in Les Epesses in central/western France, Puy du Fou finished the season last autumn with 1.74 million visitors, but the figures have only just become available for Futuroscope, which operates for more than 10 months of the year. Happily though, the science and multimedia park in Poitiers has had a good start to 2014, with sales up by 13.6% in the first quarter. Meanwhile Puy du Fou issues a statement recently revealing ticket sales are up by 25% so far this year. Its international consulting arm is now working with Auckland Castle in the north east of England and the proposed park Park Russia near Moscow to develop new live shows.
Darien Lake, Darien Center, New York, is increasing the options for guests wishing to stay at the park overnight with the addition of 40 slide-out RVs (recreation vehicles/motor homes), seven deluxe and five economy cabins. Each RV and cabin sleeps up to eight people and comes with amenities including a stove-top oven, microwave, refrigerator, full bathroom, air conditioning and, in the cabins, either a covered porch or patio. There’s also a new camping lounge and a makeover of the General Store & Deli.
Accesso has signed a three-year “master service agreement” with Merlin Entertainments allowing the visitor attraction giant to utilise the accesso Passport suite of ticketing and e-commerce solutions, starting with a trail run at Thorpe Park near London. Merlin’s Legoland Windsor park, also outside the British capital, will add a smartphone-based Qsmart system and extend its use of the Qbot handheld virtual queuing system for an additional three years. Accesso has also signed a deal for the Passport system to go into use with Compagnie des Alpes at Walibi and Aqualibi Belgium, Bellewaerde Park (Belgium), Walibi Holland and Dolfinarium (Netherlands). Over 400 attractions worldwide currently employ Accesso technology, and the company now provides technical support in languages including Dutch, German, French and English – all four of which will be of use to Compagnie des Alpes.
MAY 2014
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