23,869 Visitors See the Latest in Family Entertainment
The success of the 2004 Park Show International, that was held simultaneously with Enada Spring, has opened up new international prospects for a market addressing all age groups and concentrating on complete families, with the 2004 show boasting a large increase in foreign exhibitors.
Overall, the two expos – inaugurated on February 26 by the Chairman of Rimini's Chamber of Commerce, Manlio Maggioli, with 'godmother' Miriana Trevisan – chalked up 23,869 visitors (a 1.8% increase), of whom 2,035 were foreign (with an important 21% rise in foreign trade members from countries including Asia, South America, Saudi Arabia and Europe, all of whom found interesting new ideas during their visit to the show held on the Adriatic coast).
The biennial Show of Equipment & Components for Amusement Parks, Water Parks & Fairgrounds once again confirmed the concept of leisure via new interactive attractions that enable both children and adults to enjoy themselves by taking an active part in the action and playing a decisive role in satisfying their leisure time expectations. The event also confirmed the new trend towards family-format amusement. In fact, the conference "From amusement arcades to thematic FECs" attracted all the trade's main experts to Rimini and definitively confirmed the launch in Italy of Family Entertainment Centres. In Italy there are already 60 venues that can be classified as such, combining leisure ideas for kiddies, teenagers and adults under one roof, complete with eateries and areas for birthday celebrations and parties in general. Trade members' increasing professionalism was also seen to be strengthened from the point of view of client loyalty strategies with technical solutions and promotional initiatives aimed the venues' various demographic targets.
There was great feedback for the European Golden Pony Awards which, at its second edition, drew to Rimini representatives of some of Europe's best known them parks, leading edge travelling shows and the most innovative internationally acclaimed FECs. For the 2004 Awards, 'Games & Parks Industry' magazine selected representatives from 28 countries. A total of 47 awards were presented to representatives from all over Europe, as well as from Mexico, Singapore, Brazil, Venezuela, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Poland and Algeria. As well as the categories reserved for permanent and travelling parks, as of this edition, a new award was added, entirely dedicated to Family Entertainment Centres. The Italian representatives who received Golden Pony Awards were Edenlandia (Naples) for the theme parks category. For travelling shows, the award went to Davide Cater (Rovigo), Vittorio Livero (Rome), Roberto Manfredini (Turin); Corrado Marengo (Cagliari), Carlo Piccaluga (Turin) and Angelo Catellani, who is of Italian origin, but has worked in Saudi Arabia for some time. The FECs that received awards included Benacus Freetime in Pastrengo (Verona).
The large number of qualified visitors relaunched Park Show, with prospects of an even higher international profile. Unionparchi Chairman Enrico Ghinato said, "The fact that Rimini hosted representatives from important parks, such as Sweden's Liseberg and Germany's Phantasialand, as well as delegations from Singapore and Brazil, bears witness to the fact that we're looking at an event which the trade can relate to. We hope that in the future this characteristic international profile increases even further because, in my opinion, Park Show has all it takes to become Europe's main reference expo for this sector."
"We're satisfied with this new expo's progress," said ANESV-AGIS Chairman Gastone Rampazzo. "The level of the trade members visiting Park Show was definitely good and there were interesting contacts, which in some cases even led to purchases actually being made during the show. We saw promising signs of the difficult period the sector's going through coming to an end in the near future and hope that from the next edition, Park Show will be able to increase the selection of manufacturers exhibiting even further."
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