Different Owners, Same Mission
by Jakob Wahl
 Fernando Medroa, working since 2002 for Walibi Belgium, is in his second season as general manager of the park, situated 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) south of Brussels. Opened in 1975, the park looks back at 35 years of successful operation. Major attractions include the suspended looping coaster “Vampire,” a Boomerang looping coaster, the interactive dark ride “Challenge of Tutankhamon,” and much more.
Under the ownership of French group Compagnie des Alpes, which operates ski stations, parks, and other attractions all over Central Europe, Walibi recently invested in an intense renovation including an overhaul of its indoor waterpark, Aqualibi. With innovation and popular events, the park opposed the economic crisis and even broke a very special record in 2009.
FUNWORLD spoke with Medroa to uncover the secrets to his success.
What brought you to the industry?
I started in 1992 after leaving university. I arrived in Paris to work for Disney as an operator in the famous attraction “Pirates of the Carribean” before the opening of the park. I made my way up through various departments and stations before I left in 2002 for Belgium. I think this was the best way to understand the business in depth. It’s important that you never forget how you started and where you come from, because it can also be a source of motivating the people around you.
You left Disneyland Paris for Walibi Belgium (Six Flags Belgium at that time), changing from a resort to a regional park. What led to this decision?
Disney was a wonderful experience for me, as it offers you so much training and you can start from the bottom and work yourself all the way up. I was approached by the general manager of Six Flags Belgium at that time, Vivianeen Paturel. She was a former Disney employee, as well, so she heard about me and approached me. I said to myself, “It’s an industry that I love, and why not carry on? So why not Belgium?”
What did you bring from Disneyland Paris to Walibi/Six Flags?
A lot of things, but mainly the ability to create a team atmosphere. I started as director of operations and built a new team, a new culture. We also implemented new management tools in training and put different aspects in place; we changed operational things and concentrated more in terms of guest satisfaction (what does the guest mean to us?).
Disney helped me out a lot. Coming from a big park to a regional park, you can’t make the “Disney Way” become the “Walibi Way.” But you can adapt a lot of elements, which worked very well.
In the eight years since you started to work at the park you experienced several changes in the ownership. How did these affect the daily business?
In management terms it was an enrichment, as we learned from each owner. Each one of them has its own style and I think with each owner Walibi became a better park. Six Flags brought a lot of heavy investments, a lot of attractions, and a new way of working with more professionalism. Palamon was next, basically bringing back Walibi to the park, as Walibi is a part of the culture and the heritage—a brand that has so much power moving people here in Belgium.
So it wasn’t a problem to move from the Six Flags name back to Walibi?
Exactly. During the times of Six Flags we had a very interesting experience; everyone was talking about Walibi Six Flags. It was never Six Flags on its own. Walibi always stayed in their minds. All the Belgians were very happy when the kangaroo came back.
All major Belgian amusement parks are owned by corporate groups. Why do you think this is?
I don’t really have an explanation. Obviously parks are becoming more challenging to operate in terms of legislation, in terms of insurance, and in terms of money. For a family-owned business it can be very heavy today, capitalwise. You have to be prepared to invest if you want to be and remain a leader in the market.
What can you tell us about the Aqualibi renovation?
Aqualibi was a park really successful (2008 and 2009 were two years very successful in terms of visitors). So, the decision was made to build a new Aqualibi, to relaunch this beautiful waterpark for the next 20 years.
Aqualibi is an exceptional project with an investment of more than €10 million (US$13 million). It is basically a new waterpark which will open in spring 2011 with a lot of new attractions: a new zone for kids from the age of 3 to 6 years, new waterslides with and without tubes, and a complete new look. It will have a contemporary look from inside and out.
The whole project is a kind of reset; we worked a lot on those things that didn’t work too well before. We’re improving our cabins, the changing rooms, the hygiene, and, of course, its sustainability. For example, we managed to reduce CO2 emission around 40 percent by using solar panels to heat the water.
Talking about projects, you experienced the failure of “Vertigo,” a coaster prototype, that was two years delayed and finally taken down at the end of the 2008 season. What happened?
“Vertigo” was a wonderful project in the years of Star Parks. It was an innovative and unique experience in terms of a new ride. Unfortunately, from an operational point of view, the attraction didn’t fulfill its contract. And that’s why basically it was a joint effort from Walibi and Doppelmayr to decide to take it down again. We were very sad to make that decision but we have to think first of our park.
Do you plan another coaster to fill up the gap left by “Vertigo”?
We are working on ideas, but we haven’t decided anything. If we do put something in that area it has to be something big and visible. What it is, we don’t know yet.
Your Halloween event has been very successful in the past few years. What are your future plans for this operation?
Halloween is very important for us. Walibi started Halloween in 2000, and today we are the market leader in Belgium, so every single year we have to make sure we are better than our competitors and we offer something new. In 2008 we started Draco, our monster festival. We created a new universe for Halloween with the story of Draco, a frustrated circus director who never succeeded in his life and decided to bring all his monster friends to Walibi. This proved to be extremely successful— in 2008 we welcomed 150,000 people in just 11 days.
We broke the all-time Walibi record with 24,000 visitors on Oct. 31, 2009. It is a very important event for us, and we are working on new surprises for this year—a new character and maybe something completely different in the spot formerly occupied by Vearea in front of our restaurant Sergio’s.
With the successful Halloween event Walibi and some more parks turned a rather calm October in a very busy period. Are you looking into expanding into the winter season, as well?
No, for the time being we have no plans to open for Christmas. It doesn’t mean we have abandoned the idea completely, but we are trying to concentrate on doing the normal season at 100 percent. We still have some room to exploit our summer and Halloween seasons.
What has the recent economic crisis taught you about Walibi Belgium and the industry as a whole?
In this business, especially in the seasonal parks, you never know where you’re going. You can anticipate much, but at the end of the day it will be the visitor and the client who decide. One thing that helped in 2009 was our “Big 7” concept; we focused on our seven major attractions in the park and did special events for each of them. For “Loup Garou,” our wooden coaster, we created a real-size layout of the coaster in our parking lot. We invited around 1,000 people who came in the morning to form the layout and then spend the day in the park, which brought us a lot of press coverage.
Another example was our rapids ride, “Radja River,” where we had a partnership with the canoeists from the Belgian river Lesse, a big river in Wallonia, Belgium. We had a competition with kayaks in “Radja River” and also took one of our boats to the Lesse. Things like that worked wonderfully and we had a lot of coverage.
Where do you see Walibi Belgium in five years?
That’s not an easy question to answer. I see a park in growth, I see a park with premium quality in terms of product and guest satisfaction, and we want to stay the number-one park in Belgium. For us it’s a big chance to have two products in one; you have an attractions park and you have an indoor waterpark, so you give the clients the possibility to choose. With our combined tickets, visitors have the chance to see both—something you won’t find in any other park around. With a completely renewed waterpark, we look into a bright future.
Contact IAAPA Europe Program Manager Jakob Wahl at jwahl@IAAPA.org.
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