Steve Peet is helping build the attractions industry in Malaysia, including capital Kuala Lumpur
Legoland Malaysia will open in September 2012 and will be the fi rst Legoland park in Asia
The indoor educational and enter-
tainment theme park gives children the opportunity to learn about the world of adult occupations by role-playing different occupations. These include a fi refi ghter, pilot, doctor and chef. KidZania KL will showcase 59 workplaces, providing 90 dif- ferent vocations for children to experience. The award-winning franchise from
Mexico is a clever choice as, according to the Department of Statistics, Malays have an average of 4.4 children per family. Also, neither Malaysia, nor its neighbours, have many attractions aimed at children aged four to 12. Burhanuddin confi rms that the companies’ emphasis – for the moment at least – is on creating “family-orientated entertainment offerings”.
INDUSTRY EXPERTS A solid team of theme park experts has been employed to run the group’s opera- tions. They include Darrell Metzger (ex Sentosa Island Singapore), who has been brought in as executive committee chair- man for both Destination Resorts and Themed Attractions (see interview on p27), alongside Peet, who was formerly with Warner Village Theme Parks. The company’s taking no chances
with its start-up team for KidZania KL. As, potentially, the group’s main attraction, it will either be its poison chalice or shin- ing star. Will Edwards (ex governor of KidZania, Dubai and Six Flags operations) is operations director and Jean-Marc Bled
AM 1 2012 ©cybertrek 2012
“GREAT SERVICE IS FAR MORE ACHIEVABLE WHEN YOU START WITH A CULTURE THAT IS FRIENDLY, WARM AND NATURALLY WELCOMING, AS MALAYSIANS ARE”
(previously with Merlin Group and Disney and the ex mayor of KidZania, Dubai) takes up the role of vice president of operations. As well as relying on international theme
park veterans, Peet says the company wants to “nurture creative local talent”. He advises that they’ve already put together a great team of Malaysian senior managers, made up of the most experienced people in the Malaysian attractions industry. In total, Themed Attraction’s projects will cre- ate 10,000 jobs over the next three years. But fi nding local talent isn’t proving easy.
“It’s always going to be a challenge to get that number of people in an almost brand new industry,” Peet says. “Predominately, we’re looking to source employees from Malaysia, but we have to be open minded
to the fact we may have to look at other employment markets to fulfi l skill sets.” On the upside, Peet claims Malaysians’ inher- ent warmth makes them a natural fi t for the theme park market. “Great service is far more achievable when you start with a culture that is friendly, warm and naturally welcoming, as Malaysians are.” But he’s not taking any chances. “Our
emphasis will be on very structured train- ing and nurturing of our staff to get them to the point where they can operate and grow the business in the future.” Peet admits that one of the chal-
lenges his team faces is in educating the Malaysian market about an industry which, he says, “they’ve had little or no exposure to.” Locals, he says, “like to travel” but con-
Read Attractions Management online
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