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TiLEzone London 2010
The fifth TiLEzone London seminar takes place on Thursday, February 25, where operators of visitor attractions, and their suppliers, will be presented with hot new ideas to future proof their attractions and insight into current trends.
Drop 'n' Twist
This new tower ride by Italy’s SBF/Visa Group is available in a variety of different sizes. Each version comes complete with multiple ride patterns including shot, drop and bounce.
Bombay Sky Kopter
Bombay Amusement Rides (BARPL) recently completed its first Bombay Sky Kopter. The family ride, built to an Italian design, stands 7-metres tall and has been shipped to Indonesia, where it has already proved very popular with children at Jawa Timur Park.
Suspended Polyp
The German ride manufacturer Gerstlauer has introduced a new variation of the Polyp ride, complete with suspended seating. This flat ride features five arms supporting 40 seats in which riders' legs hang free.
Skyflyer
This new tethered helium balloon offers passengers the chance to view 360-degree scenery at a height of 120-metres. Up to 16 people at a time can ride, suspended in a gondola from beneath an airship-shaped balloon.
Sky Trail
Now supplied in FEC-friendly colours, the Sky Trail Discover provides an exciting, challenging and “dangerous-yet-safe” experience for anyone 1.1-metres and taller.
Laser Frenzy
New from Creative Works Theme Factory, Lazer Frenzy is an arcade-style attraction for spaces as small as 200 square feet. According to its supplier, the game delivers the same revenue as nearly eight arcade games in half the space.
Sideshow shooting gallery
Arcade users are being encouraged to roll up for all the fun of the fair with this new redemption game from Pan Amusements.
Centennial Skee-Ball
Skee-Ball is a classic midway and arcade game that has been enjoyed by family members of all ages for a century. To celebrate its anniversary in 2009, Skee-Ball Amusement Games has produced this collector’s edition anniversary alley.
Scare Kingdom
Scare Kingdom scream park is the latest concept from the UK's AtmosFEAR! Scare Attractions. Here creator Jason Karl explains how he has capitalised on the British public’s growing appetite for Halloween …and left them screaming for more.
Mack makes tea cups interactive
Mack Rides has introduced Twist ‘n’ Splash, an interactive, water-based version of its classic tea cup ride.
Reinventing the wave pool
The American company Ocean Innovations boasts nine waterpark patents, with a further nine pending. The Liquid Slide is its answer to the question, “How can we improve the traditional wave pool?”
Parks & Resorts Scandinavia
Amid all the European consolidation of recent years, one group that has been quietly doing its own thing is Parks & Resorts Scandinavia (PRS). At the end of a record-breaking season, Owen Ralph caught up with Mattias Banker, one of PRS’ three young owners.
A quick recipe for your F&B team
Working within the catering industry is not viewed as a glorious position in the general public’s eye. There is a lot of hard work, sweat and long hours. Yet food & beverage provides the second most profitable resource to many park’s bottom line.
Jurassic Paul
Over the years many parks have promoted attractions themed to dinosaurs. For example, there's Epcot's Universe of Energy Pavilion's ride through a primeval world filled with dinosaurs. Another is Islands of Adventure's Jurassic Park River Adventure and Pteranodon Flyers ride. Then there's the DinoLand USA area in Disney's Animal Kingdom.
E-DA World
E-DA World is the name of a new 90-hectare shopping and entertainment district in Kaohsiung, south Taiwan. The project is a flagship for the E-United Group, a local conglomerate with roots in the steel business.
Nigerian park planned
A new amusement park development is planned for Nigeria. The $80 million Great Adventures Amusement Park & Resort is scheduled to open late 2012 in Udi, part of the state of Enugu.
Gerstlauer Sky Fly
Sky Fly is a new ride from the German manufacturer Gerstlauer. Available with one or two arms, it seats either six or 12 riders. Riders can control their orientation as they fly through the sky in open seats where their legs hang free. The rotation of the seat is controlled with wings attached at the side.
S&S launches new rides in China
S&S Worldwide is building two new compressed air launch coasters and several tower rides for 2010 delivery to China.
New coaster concepts from Vekoma
Vekoma has unveiled a new coaster concept called Dragon Fly. Riders are tilted forward in a kneeling position on this family swinging flying coaster, pictured here.
Fourth Fantawild park promised in China
The multimedia attractions developer Hytechnology is planning to open its fourth Fantawild theme park in the Chinese city of Wuhu. The park is one of two new outlets scheduled to open in 2010 and will open in time for either the Chinese New Year (February) or National Day (October) holiday.
Sally unveils Power Blast
Power Blast is a new family dark ride available from the Sally Corporation. This intergalactic black light adventure features a choice of 12 scenes in a 20,250 sq ft enclosure, using almost 850ft of track.
Tony's Mystery Golf
After success with its Mechanical Minigolf installations in the Benelux, Jora Vision has now produced its first blacklight golf attraction. Tony’s Mystery Golf in Leiderdorp features a fun storyline aimed at kids.
New from Bob's Space Racers
Lucky Duck (pictured above) from is based around the classic carnival game, but now has a flat screen display that shows the player electronically what size prize they have won while providing the operator with built-in revenue accountability.
Intamin's order book is wet
ntamin has a high number of water rides on its order books for future delivery. "The success of Pilgrim's Plunge at Holiday World & Splashin' Safari [pictured] contributed to that," believes Intamin and Ride Trade's Sascha Czibulka.
Accessible fun for all in San Antonio
Scheduled to open this coming April, Morgan's Wonderland is the world's first ultra accessible family fun park. The 25-acre park is located in 2010 in San Antonio, Texas, and has been designed specifically for guests with special needs.
Big wheels keep on turning
In the last few months, Great City Attractions (formerly World Tourist Attractions) has opened new giant observation wheels in London, Paris, Copenhagen, Malmö, Sweden, and the English cities of Birmingham and Middlesbrough.
Six Flags contracts 5D
Austrian multimedia attractions specialist 5D International has confirmed that it has been chosen by Six Flags to provide an anchor attraction as part of the American park chain’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2011.
Busy BRC
An international portfolio of projects will keep BRC Imagination Arts busy in the next 12 months.
Three theatres for Simworx
Simworx has three confirmed orders for special effects theatres in 2010. These include a 100-seat installation at the Land’s End visitor centre in England, a 48-seat theatre for the refurbished Grand Pier in Weston Super Mare, also in England, and a 112-seat theatre for a site in Bourgas, Bulgaria.
Horse Talk with Mr Zhed!
Meet Hilda, the taking goat. This computer-generated character interacts with guests and is one of several animated animals available from Living Pictures of California.
Catch a Fish
“A lot of parks have stopped running games now because of staff fraud,” reports the Amusement Corp’s David Miller. The Australian company has released a new midway game that it says will increase takings ...then stop them drifting away into employee’s pockets.
Technical Park comes out Fighting!
Technical Park, the Italian ride manufacturer, has unveiled two new variations of its Streetfighter ride.
Timberliner trains
A new range of wooden coaster trains from the Gravity Group and its sister company Gravity Kraft promises to increase rider comfort.
Mega Disk'O' for Seabreeze
Seabreeze, Rochester, New York, will introduce a Mega Disk'O from Zamperla for the 2010 season.
Kernels - January 2010
Tourists in Copenhagen looking for the Little Mermaid this spring or summer should head not to the harbourside at Langelinie but instead to Tivoli Gardens. From April 16 onwards visitors will be able to see a replica of the world famous statue as the real one sits in Shanghai as part of 2010 World Expo. Tivoli’s version has been loaned by descendents of Edvard Eriksen, who sculpted the original almost a century ago. The Mermaid will return from her Chinese holiday in December 2010, but even she is a copy as the original is kept by Eriksen’s family.
Mack Rides will deliver a spinning coaster next season to Le Pal, Moulin, France. It will measure 64ft tall and contain 1,503ft of track.
International Rides Management has sold two Vekoma Giant Boomerangs that formerly operated in Six Flags parks. One went to Silverwood, Athol, Idaho. The second has found a home in Mirabilandia, Recife, Brazil.
How much did your group sales and secondary spend/per caps suffer last season because of the slow economy?
Paul Borchardt, Wonderland Park, USA (pictured): Our group sales from the large groups were down significantly, by about 25%. All of these cancelled about 40 days out. What saved us was one really large government contractor group that turned out very good. We also had more of the smaller groups, so our per caps were up about 8% over all. I cannot tell if this was due to the groups or regular attendance as these are in the daily park totals. Our overall attendance was up a very little, but this was affected due to 28 days out of 116 scheduled days that were lost due to weather and one week of the Swine Flu fiasco in the spring.
