Face-off: Busch Gardens
Trying to Stay in the Game
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Author: Cameron Lewis
Staff Writer
With the overly competitive theme park and tourism industries
heating up, Busch Gardens Tampa is trying to stay in the
ballpark. In a league with Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld, they
are just trying to make a stand. What’s going to stop Busch
Gardens Tampa from thriving? It's the competitors.
Universal Orlando is now producing the world famous Halloween
Horror Nights and Disney World is producing Mickey’s Not So
Scary Halloween Party. Busch Gardens Tampa and its crew of
engineers tried to create some sort of thrill show like Disney
and Universal, called Howl-O-Scream. Yes, it’s scary and spooky,
but it’s not nearly as popular as Halloween Horror Nights.
Park guests that plan on going to Busch Gardens aren’t even
aware of Howl-O-Scream until they drive through Tampa and see
the billboard advertisements. You can honestly call their scary
event a local scene. Universal brings guests from all over the
world to its events, but Busch Gardens mostly advertises to
Tampa and Orlando locals. Newspapers, magazines, national
television commercials, and the Internet community discussion
boards advertise Halloween Horror Nights. Disney’s Halloween
party isn’t advertised as much, but it has been around for some
years now and people attend it as an annual event.
Disney and Universal both have huge fan bases which advertise
its rides and attractions. What does Busch Gardens Tampa have?
Not much except for billboards along the Florida interstate.
Busch Gardens re-paints attractions, adds thrill rides like
Rhino Rally, and creates new shows at its theatres, but it’s
just not quite enough.
So you ask, is there money being taken away from Busch Gardens
due to its lack of popularity? Yes, Disney and Universal have
stolen the Florida Tourism department and Busch Gardens has no
room to expand their consumer outreach. Disney and Universal are
sucking the life out of Busch Gardens and almost erasing the
famous name from the Florida scene.
Busch Gardens needs to advertise more in the northern states as
Universal has been doing, plus expand their fan base and alert
their members of their new attractions. With tourism season
beginning soon in Florida, it is now time for Busch Gardens to
make some noise and resume their status as a major tourism
sector in Florida.
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A Different Take on the
Situation |
Author: Graham Brooks
Webmaster
Although Cameron states several facts, some of his arguments are
have no factual evidence. None of the major parks in Florida are
suffering to the extent that was alluded to. Millions of guests a
year does not sound like near extinction to me. Each park has
their own specialty which appeals to certain groups of guests.
Universal does put more effort into Halloween Horror Nights than
Busch Gardens puts into Howl-O-Scream, causing it to be better
most of the time. Universal also has a huge advantage in this case
as they are a movie studio and can produce fancy costumes and
effects. Now for Disney's event, I have never even heard of it,
yet alone see any commercials.
If Busch Gardens does such a poor job of advertising, why is the
park filled with guests from all over the world? This past summer,
Busch Gardens launched an advertising campaign too. In Florida
alone, there were commercials advertising the all in one pass
offer. Busch Gardens is an established park around the world,
compared to Islands of Adventure, which is slowly gaining some
attention.
Really no park in Florida has been big on adding new attractions
every year. Busch Gardens added major rides in 1999 and 2001 with
both costing millions of dollars. Disney on the other hand, rarely
adds a new attraction. Islands of Adventure has also not added a
major attraction since the opening of the park in 1999. Universal
Studios is finally getting a new ride in the form of a roller
coaster this year.
Busch Gardens is going nowhere and is making a stand in a
turbulent Central Florida landscape. So far in 2003, Busch Gardens
has had an increased attendance this year, as well as a record
high during the month of July. |
