Keeping things fresh

All entertainment venues need to keep things fresh in order to keep guests coming back.

Theme parks, restaurants, and other venues address this by planning attractions that enable variability and changeability.

Variability allows the attraction to offer a different experience to the guest on a randomized or planned basis, such as offering different day and nighttime experiences. The new X Flight rollercoaster attraction at Six Flags Great America is a very different experience in the dark! Variability can also be achieved through guest interaction in which content can be driven by guest devices such as smart phones that interact with the attraction.

Attractions are sometimes designed to be changed at some future date through major alteration. Six Flags Great America transforms annually into the wildly popular Fright Fest every fall with the addition of scary elements and actors.

Unanticipated changeability can be implemented several years into the life of an attraction as well. Wiggles World at Six Flags Great America was easy to transform into Kidzopolis because of the universal appeal of the colorful original attraction.

In the May, 2012 issue of International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions Funworld magazine, author Keith Miller provides additional examples of entertainment venues who have successfully integrated these principles to keep things fresh and keep guests coming back. Read more… http://www.iaapa.org/industry/funworld/2012/may/features/InstantEvolution/index.asp