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The aim of this paper is to explore the amusement park industry and its evolution during the 1990s. The primary causes of change in this industry are determined and their impact on the companies operating in this business is investigated. The assumption to be ascertained is how currently operating amusement park firms have been able to effectively respond to the threats and opportunities created by the environmental changes occurring in the 1990s. The analysis is framed into three main sections: first, it offers an overview of the amusement industry; second, it examines the environmental trends affecting it; and third, it attempts to delineate the future development of the amusement business.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dimensions and practices that have shaped the safety of amusement rides and devices in the US amusement park industry.

The paper provides an overview and historical examination of key concepts and phenomena.

The paper concludes that continued amusement ride and device incidents resulting from a lack of nationally accepted and recognized standards will potentially lead to or cause additional negative guest perception and possibly result in regulation from an external agency. This paper identifies areas of concern and makes recommendations to address the potential consequences resulting from staying the current course. It determines that the industry needs to find a collective voice and establish consistent self‐regulating policies in order to curb the incidents rates and avoid federal regulation.

The paper reports on several secondary research, scholarly as well as industry and government publications and personal communications.

The safety of patrons visiting amusement parks has become paramount during recent times. Over the last decade or so, the amusement park industry has struggled with the fallout from numerous serious injuries and ride related deaths. This has generated a great deal of interest from patrons, media outlets, and politicians alike. With the continued operation of amusement parks and attractions and the competition of external entertainment options, it is important for the industry to project a solid and evolving image of safety in order to attract and retain patrons.

The paper explores the evolution of amusement ride and safely in the USA.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for benchmarking the service quality of amusement parks.

A hybrid approach, which is a combination of AHP (analytic hierarchy process) and TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), is applied for service quality benchmarking.

Amusement parks are centers of attraction at various tourist destinations across the world. Their service quality is constituted by the attainment of certain quality attributes that varies with different parks. For sustaining in the industry, the managers of the parks need to have a good overview of the practices followed by them and their competitors that necessitate benchmarking of the service quality.

The developed framework using the hybrid methodology of AHP and TOPSIS can be applied for comparing different amusement parks based on quality attributes, which will help the organizers in improving their service quality.

The paper identifies various service quality attributes of amusement parks and an evaluation scheme for those attributes had been developed. Based on these, a framework had been developed for benchmarking of service quality of different amusement parks.

Each amusement park has a wayfinding system, while symbols are important mediums to guide tourists to find their destinations. It is very important that whether the meanings of symbols recognized by tourists immediately. This paper mainly discusses the recognition of graphic symbols in amusement park, and proposes the improvement suggestions. Materials for this study were drawn from 20 different graphic symbols of a theme amusement park in Taiwan. The testees were required to evaluate the design of graphic symbols based on symbolic meaning and graphics recognition to summarize the confusion matrix. The results show that there are three groups of graphic symbols easy to be confused, and five symbols not meeting a criterion of 67 per cent correct responses. The reasons were discussed, and improvement and relevant suggestions have been proposed, which may be helpful to redesign of symbols.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dimensions and practices that have shaped the present global theme park industry. The reader is first introduced to the characteristics of the global theme park industry. Following a historical review of the evolution of theme parks, the paper reports on the scope of the global theme park industry, according to major geographical regions. The overview continues with an explanation of how themes are created and communicated to guests and finally, addresses the impact of theme parks on the economic sustainability of destinations.

The paper provides an overview and historical examination of key concepts and phenomena. The paper is more descriptive than analytical.

The paper concludes that continuous growth of the global theme park industry will be influenced by the quality and amount of marketing and advertising campaigns, development of new products and guest experiences, as well as external variables that the parks have no control over like competitors' strategies, weather, economic conditions, gasoline prices, government regulations, and so on.

The paper reports on several secondary research, scholarly as well as industry and government publications. Some of the original research quoted is conducted by the author.

The theme park industry has generated a wide circle of social, economic, and political influences ranging from town planning, historic preservation, building architecture, shopping mall design, and landscaping. Its impact extends further to video and computer‐assisted education, home and office design, exhibit design, and crowd management.

The paper provides a general overview of the theme park and attraction industry.

This study aims to examine the role of the servicescape in the customer experience management (CEM) of a themed amusement park following the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the managers’ and customers’ perspectives, this study specifically addresses the following three research questions: first, What changes have occurred in the servicescape following the adoption of safety measures in the park in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Second, What are the effects of these safety measures in relation to CEM? Third, What are the changes that could be maintained in the future to continue improving the customer experiential journey in the park?

A single case study method was adopted. Gardaland Park was selected as the case for this study. Data were collected from several sources: in-depth interviews with managers of Gardaland Park, focus group interviews with customers, and the corporate website and documentary. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to examine the data.

The findings reveal that safety measures affect the physical, social and digital (e- and smart) servicescape by influencing the aesthetic (reassurance), entertainment (relaxation), escapist (enjoyment and distraction) and educational (learning) experiences. Among the various changes implemented, the digital servicescape can be improved in the future when the pandemic is over by providing flexible solutions in relation to services at the park (e.g. virtual queuing) or on the website (e.g. dynamic booking).

The findings provide park managers with practical advice about servicescape organization to facilitate offering safe and memorable customer experiences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to address the effects of safety measures on the servicescape and CEM in themed amusement parks after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Catalogues that the amusement/recreation industry in the USA has around 99,000 establishments, from theme parks to fitness centres and three broad groups, sports, performing arts and amusement/gambling within the industry. Gives in‐depth information about the kind of workers and earnings, etc. Looks at the type of hiring practices involved, especially the new hiring developments. Discusses in‐depth three California amusement parts at: The Disneyland Resort; Universal Studios, Hollywood; and Knott’s Berry Farm, and voices concerns over hire procedures.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the fat, saturated fatty acid and trans fatty acid contents in ready-to-eat foods distributed at amusement parks to develop an appropriate food safety management system for children.

In all, 322 ready-to-eat food samples categorized into 17 types were collected from nine Korean amusement parks and their fat, saturated fatty acid and trans fatty acid contents were assessed.

Fat, saturated fatty acid and trans fatty acid contents were relatively high in flour-based products. On the basis of the Korea Food and Drug Administration classification, the samples in 12 categories were classified as high-fat foods. The samples in nine categories were classified as high-saturated fatty acid foods. Most samples also contained non-negligible levels of trans fatty acids. The fat, saturated fatty acid and trans fatty acid contents of samples even in the same category varied markedly.

This research will inform the necessity of an appropriate safety management system for ready-to-eat foods distributed at amusement.

Although the fat contents of foods distributed around school area were often observed, the potential risk of those in ready-to-eat foods distributed at amusement parks have rarely been assessed. As patterns of food intakes vary world-widely, a periodic monitoring data like this study may be useful for international organizations and researchers.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to an understanding of how the child consumer has been constructed in experience advertising in a historical perspective, how the view of the child has changed and how the presentation of the “good” experience has developed.

The study is based on ads in the Danish children's magazine Donald Duck. The study is a historical overview drawing on both quantitative and qualitative approaches, drawing theoretically on consumer, childhood and experience theory.

The results show that the “child consumer” has moved from being invisible on the backstage to the very front of the stage in experience advertising during the four decades examined. Moreover, the idea of what an experience is for the child has changed radically and a move occurs from a focus on aesthetic experiences to experiences of immersion and challenges of the senses. The most recent ads promote the child as not just the co‐creator but the actual creator of the experience.

It is a limitation that the study is based on a Danish sample only, and findings cannot be generalized to other national markets. It would, however, be interesting to compare with other national markets.

Marketing implications of the findings could be to go further into the direction of user generated experiences as suggested in the most recent ads, e.g. in the direction of online games where the consumer is him or herself writing the storyline of the experience unlike the pre‐planned rides most amusement parks offer today.

This study draws on child experience professionals, who have been found to be more proactive in recognizing the child consumer than, e.g. academics, and in translating the view of the children as actors to advertising copy and imagery. These marketing professionals have from early on addressed children in their own language clearly perceiving them as consumers in their own right. The most recent ads staging the consumer as creator of experiences challenge Pine and Gilmore's experience realms and call for a new way of conceptualizing and offering experiences. This is interesting for researchers working with perceptions of childhood and actors working with commercial conceptualizations of experiences.

Companies may spend capital and effort to ensure the survival within their niche but have limited capacity to expand into other niches or broaden their target segment. This paper aims to provide insights into how they can overcome this niche entrapment – companies becoming trapped in the very niche they have cultivated, the weight and inertia of their investment shackling them to its continued existence.

Cedar Fair’s acquisitions and its organizational structure are carefully examined to illustrate the need for considering niche entrapment as a concept. To understand the complexities that firms face in their attempts to overcome the niche entrapment, this paper analyzes Cedar Fair using the concepts of categories and inherited identities.

The following important lessons are elaborated for helping business organizations overcome niche entrapment: embrace the organizational complexity; use gateway and complementary identities; consider brand disassociation; and achieve ambidexterity through a portfolio of offering.

This paper deviates from the traditional treatment of niches as a focus strategy that firms can select to build competitive advantages but instead provides insights into how those very niches can become constraints. It also conceptually evaluates the attempts to overcome these constraints from an organizational perspective instead of an industry perspective. Apart from using categories in a novel way, it also introduces a new concept of inherited identities, which are the organizational identities that firms inherit as they acquire and assimilate other firms.