P14
Park Word
OCTOBER 2016
4 Park Hoppin' Paul Ruben on compact coasters
5 Front Gate Big Question + Figures of Fun
6-18 Park News Your monthly round-up
20 Ferrari Land at PortAventura Attraction preview
22 Construction MMXVIII Attraction preview
24-25 Show Review Euro Attractions Show, Barcelona
26 Show Preview IAAPA Attractions Expo, Barcelona
28 Cover Story Empex at Camp Sanfrancesco
31-32 Q-Lines Q&A with Rick Hunter
34-35 Oasis Aquapark Park profile
36-37 Marina D'Or Waterpark profile
38 Dreamer Water Park Park profile
40-41 Alpamare Scarborough Waterpark profile
43-44 Drifting Coaster Ride profile
47-48 Universal's Walking Dead Attraction profile
50-53 Latin America Waterpark update
61 Show Guide Calendar
62 Web Guide Online resources
THIS MONTH’S COVER SHOT: San Francesco is a 4-star camping village located right by banks of Lake Garda in Italy. A key part of its offering its its large swimming pool. Now it's also got an interactive splash park too courtesy of Empex Watertoys. Turn to page 28 for more info and photos.
www.watertoys.com
Park World is a proud member of...
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Merlin's £5 million (€5.5m/$6.2m) fine for the crash on The Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers last June represents almost a quarter of the attraction's original £18m investment. The direct and indirect impact of the accident, which left five people with serious injuries (two requiring leg amputations) continues to be felt well over a year later. Prior to the collision on the 14 inversion coaster,
Alton Towers was officially the UK's busiest theme park, with more than 2.5 million annual guests. After a drop to less than 2 million in 2015, it's slipped into second place and is continuing to perform below par this season. The country's number one park is now Legoland Windsor, also operated by Merlin Entertainments. It would be wrong to suggest the operator “wins”
either way, as it's taken a big hit within its Resort Theme Parks division as a result of what it admits was a “terrible accident” but one which it says has lead to a focus on health and safety that is now “sharper and more engrained than ever”. The wider amusement industry, at least in the UK, continues to feel some impact too. At a recent press conference announcing Blackpool
Pleasure Beach's new rollercoaster for 2018, the first question asked to representatives of the park concerned not the ride's height, speed, length or the number of launches but instead its safety credentials
...by alluding to what happen on The Smiler. The question was asked not by a cosy trade journalist like myself, but a correspondent from a British tabloid newspaper. I ended up sharing a taxi home with him, as well as a drink at the airport. Over that beer he told me that, against the wishes of the Pleasure Beach's press office, he would be referencing the Alton Towers accident when pitching his story to another national newspaper. “How else can I get their interest in a ride that doesn't open until the year after next without linking it to a 'current' story like this?” he asked. Hopefully the ride in Blackpool alone will be enough
to attract the media's attention when it finally opens, but it's interesting to see how factors beyond a park's control (and certainly that of this particular park) can set the agenda. The launch later this month of Legoland Dubai should give Merlin a shot in the arm, as will the opening of a new coaster at Alton Towers probably in 2018. Yet it is exactly because this park is part of such a large group, where other divisions continue to perform relatively strongly, that it is able to absorb a multi-million pound fine. Were this a single family-run attraction, things may be a little different.
Owen Ralph – editor
Editor: Owen Ralph (+44 161 438 2934)
parkworld@btopenworld.com
North American Editor: Paul Ruben (+1 585 381 1012)
parkw@rochester.rr.com
Contributors this issue:
Laura Gysen, Gary Kyriazi, Astrid Gonzalez
Sales Manager: Mark Burgess (+44 1622 699124)
mburgess@datateam.co.uk
Publication Manager: Jacqui Hunter (+44 1622 699106)
jhunter@datateam.co.uk
OCTOBER 2016 • ISSN 1462-4796
© Copyright 2015. All materials in this publication remain the copyright of Datateam Business Media Ltd and no part of it may be reproduced without the written permission of the proprietors. A request to insert an advertisement is deemed to be an acceptance of Datateam Business Media Ltd’s conditions of trading, copies of which are available on request.
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