The Large Park Report Higher Gas Prices: The 2011 Season Outlook for Florida Amusement Parks While some local parks do benefit from higher gas prices because vacationers generally end up staying closer to home to save money, even local parks suffer increased operating costs whenever energy prices rise. Business Strategies For Optimists, the Recovering Economy ...
Read more...Tourist Attractions & Parks’ online presence continues to grow, and we hope you will visit the magazine’s redesigned Web site at www.tapmag.com. The site features more informative stories in addition to what is offered in the print version, as well as an archive of our weekly eNewsletter and a new leisure entertainment business management blog ...
Read more...Tickets are more than an admission pass into an attraction, park or family entertainment center. For owners and operations managers, tickets not only keep track of their guests, but they also help to maintain security and keep attractions running on schedule. Justin Struttmann is operations manager at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, ...
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Nothing guarantees to please guests like an event held in the great outdoors. Yet Mother Nature’s weather events can conflict with and upset the best laid human plans. That’s why Sylvia Norton, general manager for Party Time Rentals, College Station, Texas, advises her customers, “Anytime of year you’re planning any type of outdoor event, especially ...
Read more...The first quarter of any year usually sets the tone for the rest of the year and 2011’s first quarter has been quite interesting. The major events unfolding as this issue of Tourist Attractions & Parks goes to press are the uprisings in North Africa (Libya in particular), the horrible earthquake disaster in Japan and ...
Read more...The amusement and the attraction trade share a number of common ideals, one of these is an innate belief in the need for an associational structure. The feeling is that an industry dealing with the public has to be drawn towards trade bodies and organizational structure as some kind of talisman of protection. For many ...
Read more...Hire wisely. Juanita Hernandez of the Lee Richardson Zoo said she seeks out employees who not only accept seasonal work, but prefer it. “This is a great job for teachers. I have one employee who is a teacher, and the part-time summer hours fit her schedule perfectly.” Weigh the pros and cons of engaging a ...
Read more...Steve Lopez swears by his spreadsheet. This document, which tracks labor percentage, daily earnings, weather and food service patterns from previous years at the Phoenix Zoo, is indispensible to Lopez, who is general manager of concessions. The data Lopez has compiled has not come easily– he said it is the culmination of years of observation ...
Read more...My colleague Frank Seninsky and I have found that between a third and 50 percent of revenue for family entertainment centers, bowling facilities and skating rinks comes from food service. If you are not operating a well-rounded food service program, this is a great edition to pick up ideas and advice to expand and improve ...
Read more...Food Service Spotlight AZA Report – Controlled Quality: Keeping Food Service Payroll Costs Down Observing and anticipating attendance and sales patterns is a crucial aspect of controlling food service payroll costs at zoos and aquariums. Although certain events – such as spring break or a new exhibit – may be “no-brainers” in terms of staffing ...
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