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Hold the excitement!
Director general Walibi's history is that of a park that ‘dares’ to open innovative new attractions: Tornado, our old Corkscrew coaster, Radja River, our rapids ride; Challenge of Tutankhamon, our interactive dark ride; and Aqualibi, which was one of Europe’s first covered waterparks. With that innovation comes the risk that you get caught up in technical delays, it goes with the territory.
The object of Vertigo (by Doppelmayr/3DBA) is to offer a unique "gliding" or "flight-like" experience. In order to achieve this, and unlike traditional coasters, we needed a flexible suspended cable system as well as long trajectories between the towers. It also meant a new radio communication control system between the carriers had to be developed. This has taken longer than originally planned. We originally scheduled the ride to open in July, but put that on hold when Doppelmayr informed us about the radio communication system.
Once the issues became evident we did not hesitate to inform the public and called a press conference. I think what we said was understood and appreciated. We have tried to keep an open communication at all times on the status of the ride, and have certainly not had much negative feedback.
We had a large campaign planned for the summer focused on Vertigo. When it became evident there was going to be a delay, we refocused as best we could on the key strengths of the park: The best and biggest variety of family, thrill and kids rides in the market …a great place for all the family. We had already started communicating this during the previous season when we rebranded back to Walibi.
Next season’s marketing plan is not finalised yet, but logically the fact we are still opening a world prototype will be an important part of it. The special Vertigo discount coupons that we distributed this year have had their validity extended to summer next year.
"Every disadvantage has its advantages" as someone once said. Given the fact that Ver tigo is a world first, the delay does give us more time to iron out training details and move further up the operational learning curve prior to the new opening date. We do believe that next year we will see the benefit of some "pent up demand" caused by the delayed opening.
