Several times now I’ve written about promotional plans for dining, including the packaged dinner that was offered for a while in Disney’s Animal Kingdom and a similar type of plan that was offered at Universal Studios.

Over the years the error of not researching things properly and clearly has lead to numerous incorrect market decisions. In the case of New Coke a few years back, the Coca Cola Company extensively tested the product and found that its new formula tasted better.

I have read in recent weeks of the common threat to coastal amusement parks by rising land costs and taxes due to development, and the near mandatory practice of putting up condominiums. That issue is especially sensitive to our park in Ocean City, Maryland. We are pleading with the various levels of government to find a way for us to co-exist in this real estate boom/fiasco. Even if we can survive [ the park has just got another year's reprieve], it means higher taxes, and that translates to higher ticket prices.

My spring trips to China gave me a chance to ponder the current issues regarding copyrights and the attractions industry.

Across the globe rates of entertainment tax vary greatly, but they need not always dip into a venue’s profitabilility. Some operators have attempted to secure a zero rate, and in a few cases they have even been successful, the Malaysian trade association MAAFTA recently succeeding thanks to a government that is clearly keen to encourage tourism development.

Picking up where Kevin Williams left off in the May issue (see link at bottom of page), I would like to discuss how park and attractions can avoid a costly lesson by instituting screening technologies into the staff hiring process.

We’ve profiled several successful and not so successful examples of merchandising in these columns over the past few months. Now I’d like to offer a more global and critical analysis some of the mechanisms used when it comes to retailing within venues.

A hard reality for any park or attraction operator will always be the fact that the whole public perception of the venue is based on the one issue they have the least control over ...their staff!

As readers of my columns in the past will know, I first coined the phrase “leisurized marketing” in the early 1980s. It was much later, in the 1990s, when Disney came along with its creative term “merchantainment.”

Park World has introduced a new blogging facility where we will publish comment pieces by industry members and regular contributors to the magazine. Gerry Robinson gets the ball rolling this month with his observations on trade shows. Here’s the full – online only – text.