Park World - December 06/January 07 - (Page 45)

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After increased effor ts to reach out to its international members over the past few years, the WWA has seen a 44 per cent increase of international attendees to the show. Representatives from more than 36 countries walked the trade show floor.They came from Aruba, Bahrain, Cyprus, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, the Virgin Islands, Malaysia, Lithunia, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands and of course the USA. In recent years, the WWA has observed more developers interested in the waterpark industry. “The indoor waterpark resort segment of our industr y continues to grow at an amazing pace,” notes Root, “and it’s fuelling a renewed interest in waterpar k development throughout the world. Attendees from indoor waterpark resorts continue to make up an ever-increasing portion of our overall show attendance.”This year, he added, there was a 34 per cent increase in indoor resort waterpark facilities. Those who made the trip to Lake Buena Vista enjoyed the exhibits, seminar s and special events at the biggest WWA show in the past decade. With the 100,000 sq ft Veracruz Exhibit Hall sold out by ear ly July, the WWA hosted 347 booths, an increase of 73 from the 25th Anniversary event held last year in Las Vegas. That meant there were many new faces. “This is a great show,” offered Tim Berry of Dollywood’s Splash Country, Pigeon Forge, Water leisure and development professionals gathered for the 26th Annual Symposium and Trade Show of the World Waterpark Association WWA from October 18 to 22 at the Coronado Springs Resort in Walt Disney World, Florida. A rich education programme plus access to world-class suppliers and industry experts attracted 1,949 registrants – a whopping 22 per cent rise from last year. Paul Ruben reports. “The World Waterpark Association’s 26th Annual Symposium & Trade Show was one of our most successful events ever,” crowed WWA president WHAT TO WEAR One of the liveliest sessions at this year’s WWA Symposium was the Large Park Debate, where one of the topics discussed was how to get guests to conform to the requirement that they must wear a bathing suit in the waterpark. Six Flags, for example, lists a code of conduct on its website. It was agreed that it is important to communicate the rules before arriving at waterparks. Disney, on rare occasions, may give a guest a swimsuit.Another park occasionally offers swimwear at employee prices. Overly revealing swimwear, especially prevalent among international guests, is another problem. Flowing garments may not be allowed on certain attractions. Sea World San Antonio has a black line in its wave pool that fully clothed visitors may not cross. Posted signs stating that proper swimwear is required was another solution. Other signage asks that no buttons, rivets or zippers be worn. Parks must decide if it is a safety issue or an offensive appearance issue. Cotton clothing was noted as a problem since it clogs the lint filters, adds weight when wet and is not slippery on slides. Hand up if you’re having fun: The Annual Reunion Party, hosted this year at Typhoon Lagoon Tennessee. “This is my first visit. We came to try to find innovative product for our park. We’ve found several ideas for both design and operations.” “This has been a spectacular show with a great diversity of offerings for the waterpark owners,” believed Jack Waterman, consultant to the Great Wolf Resorts group of Madison, Wisconsin. “The seminars have been very valuable too. We all know the industry is growing, but we sometimes forget that water filtration techniques, air handling for indoor facilities, lifeguard training and so forth are all developing new ways to do things compared to five years ago.” “This is the best show yet,” contended Joe Schmitz 45  Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in Unknown on line 0 http://www.parkworld-online.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Park World - December 06/January 07

Park News
Park Hoppin’
Big Question
Spotlight
Networking in Atlanta
Launch Pad
Bob Rogers
Konge Parken
Mondial
WWA Symposium
Technofolies 2006
IAAPA Attractions Expo
Euro Attractions Show
Fun Doctor

Park World - December 06/January 07

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