Bigger. Better. More thrills. More chills. America’s theme parks keep pushing the envelope of fun and fantasy.
“It’s all about building a better mouse trap,” said Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs, executive vice president at Lifescapes, an environmental design firm in Newport Beach, Calif.
Oneupsmanship in wonderland is both an external and internal affair. Park owners are not only interested in wooing consumers away from the competition, but getting visitors to return to their turf and linger.
“Everyone is trying to figure out to how to capture the customer for a longer period of time,” Brinkerhoff-Jacobs said.
While the number of theme parks in the U.S. has remained fairly flat at about 800, attendence has risen steadily over the past few years with some 275 million visitors in 1993, according to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA).
Staying new and improved via new attractions, entertainment and technology is what it takes to keep consumers coming back and staying longer, experts say. But accomplishing this takes a lot of money.
Case in point: MCA Inc. spent a tidy $650 million when it opened its Orlando theme park, Universal Studios Florida, in 1990. And now a 10-year expansion plan that will add a second theme park, five resort hotels and a nighttime entertainment complex bears an estimated price tag of $3 billion.
Those blockbuster attractions do not come cheaply either. Universal’s wildly popular “Back to the Future” ride cost about $40 million to build in Orlando and even more to set up in Hollywood.
The high cost of entry and the high cost of remaining competitive are a couple of reasons for the void of new parks in the U.S., experts say.
It’s also why theme park owners are incredibly secretive about what goes on in the development department. Indeed, Walt Disney’s Imagineering division flatly refused to talk to the Tribune about future or even existing attractions.
Although other industry players were unable to discuss projects on the drawing board-non-disclosure agreements are commonplace-they agreed to make some general forecasts. Among them: more entertainment elements are expected as theme parks adjust for aging Baby Boomers.
“Older people don’t all want to ride double corkscrew roller coasters,” said Jim McCarthy, a vice president of Economics Research Associates in San Francisco.
And look for more sit-down food venues to join the plethora of fast-food stands, said John Graff, executive director of IAAPA.
With the theme park industry focused primarily on renovation and expansion here in the U.S., new development will take the form of urban entertainment centers-something Mayor Daley has sought for several years in Chicago.
This new format takes lessons learned from theme parks but applies them in a scaled-down version, allowing developers to take entertainment to people rather than force people to travel to the entertainment.
Some of the elements: traditional movie theatres as well as special format theatres, retail, gaming arcades, play areas, food and live entertainment.
Urban entertainment centers have greater flexibility, not only in terms of size but climate. For while major theme parks require warm climates to stay open year-round, enclosed urban entertainment centers can locate almost anywhere.
Developers interested in urban entertainment centers include movie people, shopping center owners and theme park operators. “A lot of people are coming at this from a lot of different directions.” said Jeffrey Rochlis, a principal of developer Rochlis & DeMyer in Washington D.C., explaining why there is no defined recipe for the format as of yet.
Although urban entertainment centers are sometimes slugged “next-generation theme parks,” experts say they are not a replacement for the theme park, which is continuing to evolve with technology playing a tremendous role.
First, inventors expanded the traditional theme park fare with what are called multisensory ride adventures-those that plunge people into shark-infested waters as with “Jaws” or that throw the audience into a flame-engorged warehouse as with “Backdraft.”
Then came simulator rides-those like “Star Tours” and “Back to the Future . . . The Ride” that combine film with motion to engulf and involve viewers. These descended from aerospace and defense technology, which produced advanced simulators for pilots of fighter jets and space shuttles.
The major plus is that these attractions require far less space than roller coasters or other types of land-hogging “iron rides.”
“Technology has now been developed so that the same kind of thrill can be achieved in a much smaller space,” said Rick Solberg, a Santa Monica-based architect who has worked for numerous theme parks including Knots Berry Farms and Universal Studios.
Motion-based simulator rides also afford more flexibility than do iron rides. “Today what is a `Batman’ ride tomorrow can be a `Lion King’ ride,” said Paul DeMyer, another principal at Rochlis & DeMyer, developers of innovative real estate projects with offices in Los Angeles and Washington. It’s merely a matter of changing the electronic and video imaging, he explained.
Yet roller coaster fanatics, rest assured: those rides are far from becoming obsolete. Despite their many advantages, simulators can’t completely replicate that wind-in-your-face, stomach-dropping feeling of a roller coaster. The visual stimuli may be similar, but the body reacts differently.
Virtual reality has been slower to penetrate theme parks, experts said, largely because capacity is low. Park revenues depend on the ability to move large numbers of people through the gates and attractions, and virtual reality attractions, to date, accommodate only smaller groups.
Themed environments, encompassing elaborate landscaping, lighting and architectural design, are becoming more important as park owners seek ways to set themselves apart.
There are only a certain number of manufacturers producing hardware for parks. Theming provides a unique package for a park and its attractions, experts said.
And there’s another benefit: Themed environments help keep folks entertained while they are waiting to board a ride.
Although Universal’s “Back to the Future” flight simulator can handle about 2,000 people per hour, crowds often have to wait for hours. Starting the experience before the rides actually begin helps people in the audience feel they got their money’s worth, said Solberg, who consulted on the project.
Thus the waiting area at “Back to the Future” is designed to look like a working lab with displays of Doc Brown’s earlier inventions and film footage of previous experiments.
Not only does this help pass time, but the preshow experience helps “set people up” Solberg said. “It’s like putting on a costume to go to a party.”
“We try to put you in three-dimensional environments . . . that encompass and overload you sensory wise.” said Ron Bension, chairman and chief executive of MCA Recreation Services Group, which operates Universal Studios Hollywood and Florida, Yosemite Park and Curry Company. Bension believes the environment should begin “from the time you step into a queue line to the time you (get off the ride).”
Islands of Adventures, Universal’s second theme park in Orlando, slated to open in 1999, will take this philosophy to the next level and “set the tone for next century,” Bension added.
Popeye and the Marvel Comics Super Heroes will have major roles in melding Universal’s motion picture technology with state-of-the-art attractions.
How will Universal’s expansion affect other players in Orlando? For the most part, only for the better, experts say. Indeed, rather than being oversaturated, Orlando is probably the best place in the country to put a theme park.
Orlando’s critical mass of entertainment can be traced to Epcot, which gave Walt Disney World visitors a reason to stay another day when it opened in 1982.
Having a critical mass can extend the typical length of stay, accelerating opportunities for hotels, restaurants, retailers . . . “Everybody benefits,” Rochlis said.
Indeed, Bension says Universal Studios Florida outperforms its Hollywood counterpart by about 30 percent across the board.
“We are more visceral with cutting edge, engaging atractions . . . Disney is more whimsical, ” Bension said. “They have their niche and we have ours.”
Even if you’re not a primary attraction in Orlando “the crumbs are pretty good,” Rochlis said. “The only people who are getting hurt in this are people with weak attractions. It’s not a market for second and third rate players.”
