Industry Infl uencer
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had a strong mentality on sharing and learning from each other. We also have many proud and active member facilities in the United Arab Emirates.
Describing himself as a “determined optimist” Jakob continues: “If you look at some regional parks last year, they had an okay season. Those that adapted and were able to open were actually doing quite well over the summer considering the circumstances and there were several important factors in that. Currently, our guests truly appreciate the concept and the idea of having a fun day out. The facilities we represent have never played a more important role in the mental well being of guests, because I think everyone is fed up. We have all stayed at home way too long now, so I actually expect a huge demand once we come out of this.
Walibi Belgium We will
have a great opening keynote, which is free for everyone, about the future of the tourism industry.
an important step as it helped operators from across the world and, as a result, there is no known Covid cluster coming from a theme park visit.
“We actually produced many more documents,” Jakob
tells me, “for example one about the maintenance needed when your park has been closed for so long.” IAAPA members have realised over the past 12 months that there is so much more to the Association than for example the three global Expos. “I think we have really helped people and this has been acknowledged,” says Jakob. This is refl ected in the stable membership numbers as members still see the value in what we do.” IAAPA has approximately 1500 members in EMEA, with an equal ratio of operators and suppliers. I am keen, to understand too the country spread – I ask Jakob where the biggest proportion of park members are located? “Defi nitely in central Europe with Germany, Benelux, France and England” he says, “but we also see a very solid support from the Scandinavian parks as they always
“We have all adapted and looked at how we can streamline the way we work, so I think once we can start again in a regular operation, I expect us to be in a certain way more profi table as an industry.” While he doesn’t want to use the word “opportunity” Jakob explains that for example the adoption of ticketing technology in this period is something parks have seen the long-term benefi t of, while suppliers have used the downtime to look at new product development and other areas of their businesses that “in normal times” they might not have had time to do.
Looking ahead
While operators are no doubt making investment decisions against a very different social and economic backdrop, what is clear is that they are still looking to the future and investing in the guest experience. According to Jakob, “one of the smaller countries in Europe is the one with the biggest investment this year, Belgium; they have two world class roller coasters coming. There are other big projects across the region in terms of hotels, lots happening in Germany and a massive coaster in Sweden on the horizon too.”
Looking ahead to the IAAPA Expo Europe in Barcelona, Jakob says “we will have a great opening keynote, which is free for everyone, about the future of the tourism industry; we also have two brilliant workshops which will be delivered by people from
Plopsa Hotel 48
Barcelona SPRING PART 1 2021
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