Thursday, March 28, 2024

Investing in the Future: David Camp

Given global trends, how should attractions best reinvest in themselves to ensure maximum growth?

Chris Yoshii | Lesley Morisetti | David Camp | Matthew Earnest | Wonwhee Kim | Dan Martin

David Camp, D&J International ConsultingBe strategic

Reinvestment is critical for attractions just to maintain a competitive position. This is often the toughest concept for people outside the industry to understand. Without ongoing reinvestment attendance levels to an attraction will decline, so attraction operators need to allocate 5-10% of their income for core reinvestment.

To grow, attractions need to invest more than this; but just throwing money at an attraction without a sound understanding of the product and the audience and without a supporting marketing campaign will not work, as Six Flags discovered in Europe at the turn of the century.

Investment at parks like Europa Park (Arthur & the Invisibles), PortAventura (SesamoAventura) and Puy du Fou (Knights of the Round Table) have been made after extensive research and with a deep understanding of their audiences. These are investments to grow and maintain visitor volumes. For stable long-term growth, investment needs to be focused and targeted to complement the existing offers, broaden the appeal, reach new audiences and draw guests back to the parks time and again.

Martin Palicki
Martin Palicki
Martin Palicki owns and publishes InPark Magazine. Started in 2004, InPark Magazine provides owners and operators the perspective from "in"side the "park." Martin has also written for publications like Sound & Communications, Lighting & Sound America, Attractions Management and others. Martin has been featured in Time Magazine, CNN.com and Folio. Martin lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

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