What was your brief from the City of Vienna?

The city wanted a Prater that was thriving and attractive for Vienna and for the tourists coming to Vienna. They had more and more complaints about the Prater. Tourists were going for the Ferris Wheel, it’s a landmark, but they were avoiding completely the rest if the park because what they saw did not compare well to other leisure facilities. My job was to set up new projects and help others implement projects to make it possible for the Prater develop after three years.

What were causing the problems at the park?

Nothing changed, but the feeling was that outside the Prater the world had changed. It’s unbelievable but true, but each operator had a contract with the city which was indefinite, and they were paying only €2 per square metre per year. So there was no incentive for the operators to make anything of quality. Most of them had never been out of the Prater. Those contracts cannot be changed, so we had to work with everyone in there. Some were very good and did actually invest, but there are about 80 operators with 300 attractions, so the quality could not all be the same.

The city also recognised that not the lack of investment was also theirs and not just the operators. They were barriers to building and planning, for example.

What did you discover about the Prater?

Before no one knew anything about the visitors, or even a list of attractions! It took us nine months just to get that basic information. Now we have much, much more information. We know there are 4.2 million annual visitors, of which 2.7 million pay, the rest just walk through. Of those that spend money, 1.4 million go on the attractions and there are also people that go for the restaurants and casino etc. There is one very big restaurant that does 800,000 alone.

To have 4.2 million people passing by your attraction would be a dream for many operators, but most don’t spend, so the goal is to increase the per cap spending and the length of stay.

What has been implemented so far?

One of the main achievements of the masterplan was that before the city had 75 different departments dealing with the Prater, and you have 80 operators, can you imagine the hell that used to cause? Now we have set up a Prater service company, it’s an affiliate of the city, with a budget every year and a manager, cleaning team and security guard on site, all financed by the city. None of these things existed before. There were only three of four toilets – for 4.2 million visitors! Where did they go?

They service company has developed 250 different projects of various sizes, and 100 have already been implemented. A lot of people there thought that the masterplan would just be put on a shelf when Mr Mongon left, but they didn’t realise that my job was also to help the city implement it.

There was no training culture before, now we have Prater Leisure Training, which is run by the Prater operators themselves to try and share their knowledge.

Another very important thing was to do a zoning of the site. It’s a very old site with a sort of city zoning and we have converted it to a leisure site zoning. It’s totally new and forward thinking, and very flexible. There is a brand new information leaflet now, but when you have 300 attractions it is very tough! Normally when you do a park map you do not care so much if this or that in every corner is included, you just make nice drawing and include the main attractions, but at the Prater every 100 square metres is owned by someone different and they all wanted to be on there of course.

How have you improved access?

In 2008 there will be a new underground station, but there was also not enough parking. In Vienna, they try to do everything to take cars of the city, but we have defined an area just for parking at the Prater.

At the same time, a good thing we have done is to put the cars out of the Prater itself. Before it was somewhere you could drive at different times, but now we have closed the park to cars and finally the children can walk without through the avenues having to encounter vehicles.

What cosmetic improvements will visitors notice on site?

There is now a new entrance on the east side and next year the main entrance will be redone, which is long overdue. We are also going to change the overall theme and go back to the Austrian era of the 1900s.

There are new walkways, green areas, lighting and information booths. We have improved some of the catering too. We have a new bakery selling croissants, because many people do not realise the croissant actually originates from Vienna!

How co-operative have the different operators been?

The operators can either the do their own thing, and that is their problem, or they can play along, invest and gain. This year one of the major operators is investing in a brand new water ride – with theming, which is also new. At the end of the day it is the visitor that will decide who is successful.

One of the problems previously was that there was that there was nothing to stop duplication of attractions. Do you now have more control over how people use their land?

You’re right. We can’t tell people to leave with what they already have, but now that the city has a presence on site we can manage the arrival of new attractions so that they are different. The city has already taken some parcels of land back, either because the operators didn’t pay, or they have sold up.

Something operators can now do is to go over from one parcel to the other. The site is 20 hectares, and there’s much too much packed in there. Before operators thought only about square metres, but now things will also be judged on their level of attractiveness. We are trying to present to people the idea they can reduce the number of attractions and still increase the per cap guest spending. It forces different operators to co-operate together.

Will there be a relaunch?

No, the intention was not close the park, re-theme it and do a complete relaunch. Some people thought that after three years it would be brand new, but anyone who knows the Prater knows it will be more like 20 years. So the project has been reborn, but because it is born it is starting again and has to grow. The strategy is more to get something ongoing, year on year, rather than have one year a big launch and then nothing. We call is the Prater Renaissance.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend