Finding Promising Hot Spots From Johannesburg to Hong Kong By Jessica Downey Opening: Africa The Park When: October 2008 Where: South Africa’s Gauteng Province The $250 million theme and adventure park to be built just outside Johannesburg, South Africa, will celebrate Africa’s diversity and its many traditions, fashions, and flavors. Visitors will get up-close views of some of South Africa’s most stunning wildlife and experience plenty of thrill rides and live shows. Although Africa The Park will give visitors many of the usual amusement park thrills, it also aims to bring to life the rich tradition and culture of the region with music, food, and lots of color. Africa The Park, which promises to be one of the only culturally themed developments of its kind in this part of the world, will be developed by ITEC Productions, which developed Holyland in Orlando, Fla. ITEC will be responsible for the master planning, design, and production of the park. “We’re quite excited by the potential of this park to bring added tourism to South Africa,” says Hielke van der Maal, the CEO of Africa The Park. The 1,520-acre park will be situated on the banks of a perennially flowing stream, bordered on the west by a railway line and on the south by an existing road that goes out to the freeway about six miles away. Less than 20 miles from the Johannesburg Airport, the park is within a 30-minute drive of 9 million people who live in the Gauteng Province. The park will have the capacity for 2.5 million guests a year and will include a professional golf course and SpacePort Africa, a science center and theme park on space exploration. For more information, visit www.africathemepark.com. Boom Town A year after SARS deflated last summer’s tourism season, all signs are pointing to big business for China’s travel market this summer. Tourist and business arrivals are up and are predicted to rise with new amusement parks and attractions on the way. Asia’s low-cost airlines are beginning service, and Beijing is gearing up for the 2008 Olympics. Disney began construction in January 2003 on Disneyland Hong Kong with the $2.9 billion project scheduled to open in 2005 or 2006. Facilities will include a theme park and two hotels, which are projected to bring 10 million annual visitors. According to Hong Kong Disneyland’s web site, The Hong Kong government estimates that the first phase of the project will generate $19 billion in benefits to Hong Kong over a 40-year period. For details, visit www.disney.com.hk/hkdisneyland. The tourism boom in China is occurring all over the country, not just in the major cities, but also in secondary destinations as well, such as Hangzhou, in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province. Shanda Networking Co., Ltd., has established a new online game-themed amusement park based on Shanda’s most popular game, “The Legend of Mir.” The park is a cooperative project between Shanda and Songcheng Group, a private tourist investment firm based in Hangzhou. Buildings and structures, including weaponsmiths, drugstores, grocery shops, and battlefields, adorn the park, which opened May 1, the first day of Golden Week, traditionally the peak of tourism season. Characters from the game, such as warriors and princesses, will appear at the park. As a preliminary promotional campaign, Shanda will also sponsor a road show that will travel to 11 cities in Zhejiang Province to promote the new park beginning in mid-April. ’Tis the Season of Giving Back This season Santa’s Workshop in North Pole, N.Y., is dedicating its fifty-fifth year of operation to the creative man behind its development, Arto Monaco. who passed away last November at 91 years old. Monaco built a half-dozen of the country’s first theme parks in the early 1950s, including the Land of Make Believe in New Jersey. Monaco, who was described by a National Public Radio reporter as looking exactly like Geppetto, is credited with building the first theme park in the United States. Monaco described the initial creation of Santa’s Workshop with humility. “We didn’t even have a tape measure,” he said. “We just put one foot in front of the other and walked off the dimensions for each building. We had the whole park laid out in two or three hours, and they were cutting timbers the next day. We had no electrical engineer, no permits—it was funny.” Adrea Gibbs, general manager of Santa’s Workshop, says, “Arto’s death was felt by the many who were so touched by his imagination and his love for creating a special world of fantasy for children.” Delaware Joins the Masses The first state debuted its first roller coaster on Memorial Day weekend at the Blue Diamond Action Sports and Entertainment Complex in New Castle, Del. The Zyklon, a Pinfari coaster, was purchased for $110,000 from DelGrosso’s Amusement Park in Tipton, Pa. Nick Ferrara, Jr., the Blue Diamond’s developer, brought in Karl Renoldi to supervise the reconstruction of the coaster, which was dismantled during January’s frigid weather, says Jim Houghton, of Jim Houghton Enterprises, an amusement-ride company in Cochranville, Pa. Before they could begin, the construction crew had to scrape off 18 inches of snow and another six inches of ice. It took 16 tractor-trailers to haul the coaster to Delaware. Houghton also assembled 10 other new rides—both kiddie and adult—in time for the opening, says Colleen Healy, director of marketing for Blue Diamond. The park will initially use the pay as you play system because “it’s a new venture and we have no idea what to expect,” Healy says. “It’s exciting. We’re hoping to break ground this summer on a 75,000-square-foot sports arena with a retractable wall where we can hold indoor motocross.” Greggo & Ferrara Construction Company, which owns the 400-acre site, initially opened the park with BMX, motocross, and ATV riding and debuted an 18-hole miniature golf and the indoor Diamond Plex on Memorial Day. The park plans to open a paintball arena and hold fairs and indoor monster truck events once the Diamond Plex is on its feet. The venture is still somewhat risky, Healy says, since they don’t know how many people to expect. “But we don’t have anything like this anywhere nearby, so people are excited,” she says. Early indications suggest Healy is on the money. In October, Blue Diamond held a Monster Truck Show at the complex that drew 2,000 people. More such shows are planned. The complex has 400 paved parking spaces and can handle another 1,500 vehicles on the grass. For more information, visit www.bluediamondpark.com. Concorde’s Final Hangar: The Scotland Museum of Flight After 35 years of flight, in late April, the Concorde touched down for the last time. The plane then journeyed to Scotland’s national Museum of Flight, where it will reside in East Fortune, just outside Edinburgh. The National Museums of Scotland (NMS), which won the bid for the Concorde over 60 bidders from around the world, held a welcome party with music and family entertainment to celebrate the iconic aircraft’s epic journey. When the plane arrived, it was greeted by more than 2,000 people, who had been waiting in the rain. Frank McAveety, the Scottish culture minister, said it was a “great day for Scotland” and a landmark in the development of an inspiring visitor attraction. At the reception, Gordon Rintoul, NMS director, said, “The arrival of Concorde at the Museum of Flight will be the climax to a complex logistical exercise which has allowed a huge number of people to share in the last journey of [Golf Bravo Oscar Alpha Alpha]. We are very proud that Concorde has now arrived. It’s not every day you see the Concorde arriving, and you’ll certainly never ever see it again.” The Concorde’s final journey covered land and sea: After being floated down the Thames and up the eastern coast of Scotland by barge, the 110-ton airplane arrived at the British Energy site at Torness, where it was rolled onto land by a huge red trolley. Following the celebrations of the Concorde’s life, experts from the museum began restoration on the plane, which is estimated at more than $130,000 and is expected to be completed sometime this fall. The Concorde will be the museum’s featured exhibit in a hangar with five featured elements to the exhibition: The Race, exploring Captain Chuck Yeager’s breaking of the sound barrier; Design and Build, explaining the anatomy of the Concorde; The Concorde Experience, describing the supersonic flight from top to bottom; The Beginning of the End, remembering the Air France crash; and Retirement, memorializing the journey to the Museum of Flight. G-BOAA logged 22,769 flight hours and 6,842 supersonic cycles in its lifetime. The world’s first supersonic airliner last flew on August 12, 2000, from JFK Airport in New York to Heathrow International Airport outside London. The Concorde was built jointly by France and Britain and flew its first scheduled flight on January 21, 1976. For more information visit www.concorde-jet.com or www.nms.ac.uk/flight for museum information. Parents Can Find Their Kids Faster at Legoland Denmark You just saw them. They were right there, and now they’re gone. For families visiting Legoland Denmark, finding lost or overcurious children is now much less of a hassle. A new child-tracking system from Bluesoft Inc., and Kidspotter, can help worried parents quickly find their little ones. Parents can rent small AeroScout wi-fi tags with wristbands to be worn by the kids. If there’s a separation, the parents can send a text message from their cell phones, and they will receive an automated response telling them the location of their children. Using the map, a disgruntled parent can easily and quickly find the lost child. The park has received positive feedback about the product, since it was debuted on March 27, just in time for the upcoming season. “The separation of parents and their children is one of the greatest perennial concerns in the theme park industry,” says Dorte Tegllund, marketing director of Legoland Denmark. “The new system has allowed us to bring this separation time down to an absolute minimum.” Bluesoft Inc., based in San Mateo, Calif., developed the AeroScout tags and the location platform, and Danish company Kidspotter designed the software and text-messaging system. For more information about the technology, visit www.bluesoft-inc.com or call +1 650/571-0800.