Monthly News Reel: What You Missed This August in the Family Attraction World

Find out what’s happened this month in the world of family attraction, in this August’s monthly news reel!

Every month, hundreds of new family attractions are released, each with something new to say! At the Family Attraction Expo, we want to keep you informed with these changes, so as to ensure you’re staying one step ahead of the game.

So what’s changed this month, that you should stay in-the-know about? Let’s take a look...

Water Parks

The summer months are always the time for new and exciting water attractions. August, especially, has been a real hub for water park installations across the globe! So what’s changed?

New Water Park Openings

A huge number of water parks around the world are set to open their doors very soon. These water parks are mostly making their debut in the UK.

To start things off with speed, the fastest water slide in the UK is set to open this week. This acts as part of their £10 million plans to introduce four new water slides at Waterworld park in Stoke-on-Trent.

Adding to these developments, two new water parks have been introduced this month. After 7 months of planning and building, and a £500,000 investment, a water park in Derbyshire is opening up on 17th.

What’s more, an inflatable water park in Delamere has also opened its doors. After a £100,000 opening strategy, £400,000 is being set aside for future developments. It seems things are hotting up in the water park world, just as the British weather is cooling down!

Things are also hotting up elsewhere, just two hours from the UK, in the land of the Alps. Area 47, the largest outdoor adventure park in Austria, creates the perfect water park experience for adults. With huge water slides, and a cocktail bar alongside it, this is a big kid’s dream!

To top it all off, plans for new waters park to open in Jonesboro and Montgomery Country have also been announced. It seems there’ll be a new water park in every city, at this rate!

Water Park Disasters

It’s not all fun and games, though, as a number of disasters have kicked off in the industry. To start with, at the beginning of the month, a fire broke out at next to the Maspalomas water park in Gran Canaria. The fire produced a thick black smoke, which engulfed the park, injuring one person, whilst others covered their mouths, and ran for their lives!

Another fatal disaster hit a Chinese water park near the start of the month too, where a wave machine malfunctioned, injuring 44 visitors! Videos of the disaster flooded the internet, showing a 10 foot “tsunami”, which flipped numerous visitors off their floats, and into the water.

In other news, a chlorine leak, at Haven Seashore swimming pool, left many visitors ill, and struggling to breath. The leak meant that the pool had to be evacuated, and tourists were urged to seek medical attention.

Finally, an inflatable aqua park in Suffolk, called Alton Water, has gone into liquidation due to blue algae emerging for the second year running! This caused illness in many of their visitors, so it’s no surprise their situation became too dire to recover from.

Museums

Bristol has been the hub of museum developments this month. Firstly, the Bristol Museum has spoken of creating a 'magical objects' exhibition, displaying personal objects of civilians, which they feel hold spiritual properties. The museum is also launching their climate change educational efforts, by shrouding their endangered species taxidermy in black cloths.

Otherwise, new museums are popping up across the world! Paris, for example, are opening up a secret, forgotten WW2 bunker to the masses. The bomb shelter was used to secretly coordinate the Parisian ressistance against the Nazi occupation of Paris. The underground fortress, from 75 years ago, is equipped with 250 telephone lines and a bicycle-powered generator for you to check out!

What’s more, numerous other museums will be making their debut soon. A money museum in Paris, a slavery museum in London, an Egyptian museum in Cairo, and an LGBT exhbition in Oxford, are all some events we can look forward to.

The only problem is that the Morbidelli Museum is now closing, and people don’t know what to do with all the exhibits! Perhaps some of these new museums elsewhere can take them under their wing?

Theme Parks

With National Rollercoaster Day having been and gone this month, it’s no wonder that so many new theme parks have opened their doors! For example, a touring inflatable theme park has hit the streets of Bristol. Also, Sheffield is gearing up to welcome their £37 million Gulliver’s Valley theme park.

We can also hope to welcome a three-in-one theme park, water park, and shopping centre in New York! Alongside this, plans for a Hello Kitty theme park to open in Japan have been released, as well as a new £2.5 billion development at the Universal theme park, in Orlando.

Some fresh new ideas have also come to the forefront. Firstly, ideas for a Jurassic world run, at Universal Studios, where you get chased by “dinosaurs” in a 5k race, have come to light. Additionally, Holiday World theme park are launching their new flat-launching, racing water coaster, for the ultimate stand-off between visitors. To add to this, Disney World are planning to open the first Mary Poppins themed attraction, soon!

That’s not all, though, as things have heated up for Leicestershire’s Twinlakes theme park goers, who had to close their water park doors this month. After a sickness outbreak, where visitors came down with bouts of diarrhea and stomach aches, they had to close their doors to investigate.

To finish off, though, let’s end on some good news for China, whose theme parks are projected to rake in nearly £10 billion! This is due to the increase in disposable income for most families in the country.

Until Next Monthly News Reel...

As you can see, it’s been a big month for the family attraction industry. If you want to keep up, regularly, with the ins and outs of the industry, don’t forget to stay tuned into our blog, where we keep up-to-date on hot industry topics. Otherwise, we’ll see you in September, for our next monthly newsreel!