Ghouls that talk and turn heads (their own). Motion rides, thrill rides, water games, bumper cars, climbing walls, bungee jumps, fast foods. These were some of the sights at the annual International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) trade show, held in Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center, Nov. 12-16. So were the prominent booth of Siriusware and the smaller Doppelmayr CTEC exhibit, and the growing presence of winter resort execs eager to explore summer operations options.

“We go down there to see what’s happening in the leisure trade, in services and activities that might be of interest,” says Louis Dufour, president of Mont Saint-Sauveur, Que. “We have gone every year for the past 10 years. You always have to be out in the marketplace to be in tune with it.” The other half-dozen resort managers SAM talked with said much the same thing.

The IAAPA show, Dufour says, “shows how the marketplace is diversifying. It’s a global market now. We see different designers and engineers; attend sessions on how to get more revenue. It all comes back to same basis, we are in the entertainment business.”

IAAPA is a big show. The booths cover 500,000 square feet. With more than 1,100 exhibitors, there’s plenty to see. “I walked almost nonstop for the better part of two days and I barely covered everything in that hall,” says GM Tony Waddell of Cataloochee, N.C. And he had plenty of company: about 27,000 other visitors flocked to the show, too.

Several resorts told SAM that the seminars—more than 100 of them—and keynotes are also valuable. “The seminars are extremely beneficial,” says Camelback, Pa., owner Art Berry. “They are typically geared toward customer service, which is much different than what we get at SANY or NSAA shows. The amusement parks tend to model themselves to some extent on the icon of that world, Disney. Everyone follows their customer service model.”

Still, the aim for most attending winter resorts is to make better use of their extensive infrastructure throughout the year. Most resort managers cite several other advantages of operating in summer: keeping key staff employed, being able to offer benefits to staff, generating cash flow to pay the bills. It’s a compelling argument for summer ops.


a Few Good Ideas

The IAAPA show is bursting with ideas. Greg Galavan runs maze supplier Amazin’ Mazes and operates summer concessions at Breckenridge, Winter Park, and Steamboat. Last year he added mineral panning—think gold mining—from Cold River Mining Co. to his collection of mazes, climbing walls, and bungee jumps, and it proved very profitable. “It just grabbed kids’ interest—they love to find treasure,” adds Susan Kauber, AM manager.

With two waterparks, Dufour is always looking for different water features, ideas to improve “how to operate our wave pool, fountain, and waterfall,” as well as “different types of pumps and compressors.”

“The big buzz is hotel waterparks, to capture the business and family/vacation market,” he adds. But he doesn’t see this as a year-round business in his markets. “In Quebec, we are so geared to the seasons,” he says. “With our waterpark, once we hit Labor Day, people don’t come any more. The same trend is happening in Texas; once school starts, the [amusement park] season is over.” So, his goal is to operate each seasonal business as efficiently and profitably as possible.

Currently, Sauveur is investing millions into a base lodge at Eidelweiss, half an hour from Ottawa. “We’re looking to diversify there, by finding something no one else is doing. You have to have many things today, not just a waterpark, but also mountain biking, and three or four other features. Maybe a zipline, a driving range, a mixture of fun activities,” Dufour says. “The key is to mix it up so that everyone can have fun together.

“The question is, how can you create something that puts you in a unique position? The only way to find out is to try things, even if some of them don’t work,” he concludes.

Waddell was also trolling for ideas. “Certainly there is a lot of crossover between the ski business and the attraction business,” he says. “But it’s hard enough to start one business, like a ski area, and then think about bringing another one out of the ground. But, if you’re going to look at getting into a summer business, this show is an awfully good place to start.”

He admits that he’s also learned a a thing or two about running his winter business at IAAPA. “It’s getting to the point where we have to squeeze every dollar out of our guests,” he says, “and the amusement parks do that really well.” He adds, “It’s a good place to look for ancillary operations. I have purchased a couple of small things there, nothing earth-shattering—money-counting things, stuff like that.” He’s also picked up some ideas about offering quality fast food service and solving vending issues.


the Right Fit

Eric Flynn of Ski Liberty and Snow Time, Inc., was making his first visit to IAAPA. “Our goal was to see what was there and get educated on what things people can do in the summer months,” he says.

He, too, finds the amusement and attraction industry very similar to winter sports. “One session we went to, sponsored by Siriusware, was called the ‘heart of the industry.’” The speaker, Larry Cochran, an icon in the amusement park industry, “led a discussion that identified 10 challenges, many of them similar to the ski industry. Consolidation, debt obligation, park pricing, recruitment of staff, cost of capital, dealing with a shrinking season, the challenges that families have, with shrinking summer and a longer school year. There’s less time for the family as a whole to visit.”

So does Liberty have any big plans? “We did come away with some ideas. No single gotta-have-it items, though. You have to see the possibilities, then wrestle with them to see what will be a good fit.”

Fit matters, because attractions must suit a specific resort’s location and complement, not compete, with other nearby attractions. “If you’re a resort and have a lot of people coming already, you have to have activities for them to do. If you don’t have that summer traffic, you have to put in different attractions—they have to be the reason people will come.”

One item that caught his eye was xtraice, a synthetic ice-skating surface that requires no refrigeration. “We get calls for a skating rink; that surface was truly slick. I thought that was pretty cool. I don’t think it was too expensive—too much for a hockey arena, perhaps, but not bad for a smaller surface.” Price for a 2,150-square-foot area: about $85,000.


Looking for adventure

Camelback, Pa., has been the poster child for summer attractions—its Camelbeach waterpark does nearly as many visitors as the ski area—so it’s not surprising that owner Art Berry is a yearly visitor to IAAPA. This year he was exploring ideas for the area’s planned indoor waterpark and hotel and looking for elements to populate an “adventure park” to complement Camelbeach.

The adventure park will be a major addition. “On our tubing hill and potentially on the mountain, we’re adding a full blown adventure park.” He envisions ziplines, bungee jumps, climbing walls, Diggler (mountain bike-like two-wheeled coasters) rentals, single track, side-by-side extreme cross (for bikes), and dry-slope tubing. Plus obstacle courses for kids, created with inflatable features (an entire section of IAAPA is devoted to inflatables, from small items to 50-foot slides). Like several others, he, too, is considering a mountain coaster.

“I’m looking for rides that are interactive and not electrically run. Even in our water park, you’re pretty interactive. We have surf rides, wave pools. At the show this year, there were lots of thrill rides that are very simple,” Berry says.

His ultimate goal is to find attractions that take advantage of the mountain topography. “That’s mountain rides, compared to a typical amusement park,” he says.

Mountain coasters and ziplines, he says, “are so unique to a mountain property, you can then compete in the amusement park world. “Everyone can have a roller coaster, but only a ski mountain can have a mountain coaster. That’s so cool.

“I think adventure parks are the new development. Kids want to be interactive, to be doing ziplines and climbing walls. They want to take risks. And mountain properties have that niche.

“We think we’ll keep adding stuff to our adventure park over the next five years,” he says. “We will probably add a mini ropes course, then maybe a sidehill ropes course.”

Berry says that every winter resort already has one key adventure ride for summertime visitors: a ski lift. “In our waterpark, the lift to the top is one of the most popular rides. It’s as big an adrenaline rush for many visitors as riding down the water slide.”

Beyond the attractions, IAAPA has changed Berry’s thinking about customer service. “Winter resorts are expected to have good snow and quads; we haven’t been expected to have that great customer service throughout the resort. Parks do—that’s so critical to winning over the customer. The amusement industry really thinks about that.

“Getting into the amusement business has made us more attentive and aware of customer service. For example, take the theming of ski area restaurants. We never used to do that. Now, we’re doing delis, a smokehouse, and some upper end lunch venues. We don’t have a basic cafeteria. We used to have one bar; now have four, with different themes,” he continues. They feature, respectively, music, upscale beers, and a sports bar. “The amusement park business makes you think about that.”


Broadening Horizons

And that might be the biggest benefit of a show like IAAPA—it provides a new perspective. “The ski industry thinks of itself as unique, and it is, in many ways. But it’s a general-admission business, too, like museums, amusement parks, and many others,” says Mark Danemann of business software provider Siriusware, which has been a highly visible IAAPA exhibitor for the past few years. “Most managers in the ski business are exposed to only those suppliers that attend the NSAA shows,” he says, and there’s value in being exposed to other industries.

Danemann makes an analogy between tubing and summer operations. A decade ago, he says, “All of a sudden, it became okay to put up a tubing hill. Tubing’s been around forever, but resorts only thought of doing it recently as a way to add to current offerings and increase revenue.

“So, why not offer it in summer? That’s what water slides are all about,” he says. “Building a tubing hill is equivalent to one ride. That’s the way to build summer business, add a few things at a time. A water park can be as simple as two or three rides and a pool for the little kids.” Crystal Mountain, Mich., has done something along those lines with great success, he notes.

Plus, Danemann says, IAAPA can give resorts confidence to take the plunge into summer: “Areas would see some of their anti-summer-operations arguments dissolve, seeing so many examples of how other attractions have succeeded without having any winter draw.”

His top example: Holiday World, which began as a small family-run attraction more than an hour from any major metro area. But it has steadily added a ride or other feature every year, and it now hosts one million visits annually. “Just sitting in a room with the folks from Holiday World would be valuable,” he says.